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INCIDENTS RECALLED: 

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SKETCHES FROM MEMORY, 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE IN IRELAND; 

THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS: THE REBELLION OFJ798; THE IRISH 

PARLIAMENT; THE UNION WITH GREAT BRITAIN; EM- 

METT'S INSURRECTION; DISTINGUISHED POLITICAL 

AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERS; REMARKABLE 

DUELS; ALSO, ANECDOTES OF FASHIONABLE 

LIFE; AND ROBBERS WHO INFESTED 

THE COUNTRY. 

BY 

WILLIAM GRIMSHAW, 

AUTHOR OF A "HISTORY OF ENGLAND," "HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," ETC. 



I shall nothing extenuate, 



Or set down aught in malice- 



PHILADELPHIA: 

G. B. ZIEBER AND CO. 

New York, Burgess, Stringer & Co., W. H. Graham, Long & Brother, 
Berford and Co.; Boston, Redding & Co., Hotchkiss & Co.; 
Baltimore, S. E. Smith, W. Taylor; Washington, W. 
Adam; Cincinnati, Robinson & Jones; New 
Orleans, J. C. Morgan, B. M. Norman ; 
Louisville, G. W. Noble; Charles- 
ton, A. Head. 




INCIDENTS RECALLED 



SKETCHES FROM MEMORY. 



INCIDENTS RECALLED: 



SKETCHES FROM MEMORY, 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE IN IRELAND; 

THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS; THE REBELLION OF 1798; THE IRISH 

PARLIAMENT; THE UNION WITH GREAT BRITAIN; EM- 

METTS INSURRECTION; DISTINGUISHED POLITICAL 

AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERS; REMARKABLE 

DUELS; ALSO, ANECDOTES OF FASHIONABLE 

LIFE; AND ROBBERS WHO INFESTED 

THE COUNTRY. 






BY 

WILLIAM GRIMSHAW, 

AUTHOR OF A "HISTORY OF ENGLAND," "HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," ETC. 



I shall nothing extenuate, 



Or set down aught in malice- 



PHILADELPHIA: 

G. B. ZIEBER AND CO. 

1848. 



.3 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 184S, by 
WILLIAM GRIMSHAW, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Penn- 
sylvania. 



PHILADELPHIA '. 
T. K. AND F. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

First Machine for spinning Cotton-Twist, in Ireland, erected at Green- 
castle, by the author's father — First Cotton Mill built at Whitehouse — 
Protecting duties — Irish Volunteers — Grand Review — Lord Charle- 
mont — Duke of Leinster — Dungannon Convention — Whig Club — 
Lord Castlereagh — United Irish Society — Arrest of Nelson, Sampson, 
and others. ....... 9 



PART II. 

Belfast Academy — Rev. Dr. Bruce — David Manson — Robert Telfair — 
The way in which Candlemas was kept, at the schools, half a century 
ago — Barring out — Serious affair at the Belfast Academy — A ball 
fired through Mrs. Bruce's cap — Examinations, and mode of award- 
ing premiums — The De Courcy family — Sons of the nobility, and 
coloured children, at the same school — Sir Henry Pottinger — Lord 
Kinsale, and the King of England. - - - - 14 



PART III. 

Town of Belfast — Chichester family — Marquis of Donegal I — His im- 
mense estates — No daughters born in the family for a century and a 
half — Earl of Belfast — Is beset by gamblers — His bond for a gam- 
bling debt, cancelled, on his marrying a daughter of Sir Edward May 
— Serious predicament, caused by a misnomer — Great assemblage of 
the Irish harpers at Belfast — Lord Massereene — His escape from 
prison, in France — His eccentricities — Marries his house-keeper — 



VI CONTENTS. 

Death, post-mortem examination, and burial of Lady Massereene's 
dog — Lord Annesley marries his gardener's wife — Lord Erskine, his 
house-keeper — Miss Farren, the actress, becomes Countess of Derby 
— Miss Mellon, Duchess of St. Albans. - - - 18 



PART IV. 

Commemoration, at Belfast, of the destruction of the Bastile — Volunteers 
suppressed and disarmed — General search for arms — Execution of 
William Orr — Plan for his escape — Earl of Carhampton (formerly, 
Colonel Luttrell) commander-in-chief — His visit to Belfast — Scene 
with the teacher at the poor-house — His father and grandfather — In- 
terview between his lordship and the author's father, at the Castle, 
in Dublin — Is annoyed by the tailor, with squibs and crackers — My 
father saved from arrest, by a game of cards. - - 22 

PART V. 

Battle of Antrim — Death of Lord O'Neil — The sergeant's horse — Battle of 
Saintfield — Of Ballinahinch — Extensive conflagration — Our property 
carried on board a vessel — Patrol of cavalry endeavour to board us 
— We slip our cable, and escape. Earl of Camden recalled — Mar- 
quis Cornwallis appointed lord-lieutenant — His humane and judicious 
policy — Country tranquilized — The people deliver up their arms. 28 

PART VI. 

Great excitement in Belfast, on account of the cannon of the Blues — Arrest 
•. of their commander — Newell, the informer, takes the portraits of the 
United Irishmen— Is drowned at Lame — Another informer drowned 
in Cromach Creek, and one shot, in Belfast — Joseph Kelsey joins the 
Orangemen — Insults a young girl, and is killed — McKelvey assassi- 
nated, on his return from the assizes — Conviction of William Kane, 
and his wonderful escape from prison. - - - 32 

PART VII. 

White Linen Hall, in Belfast, set on fire by the Lancashire Dragoons — 
Fire engine from Whitehouse arrests the flames — Coup de grace 



CONTENTS. Vll 

given, by the author, to the Belfast engine — Heads on pikes— Henry 
McCracken — His execution — His sisters endeavour to restore hirn to 
life — Their museum of the martyrs' clothes. - - 40 



PART VIII. 

The author is sent to Dublin — Danger of travelling in the mail-coach — 
Is escorted by Enniskillen Dragoons — Legislative union with Great 
Britain — His father is summoned to the house of commons — The 
author enters the body of the house, through mistake — Description of 
members — The speaker — Lord Castlereagh — Mr. Isaac Corry — Henry 
Grattan — His duel with Mr. Corry — Sir Neil O'Donnell — Description 
of the house, and of the house of lords — Union Bill passed — Protect- 
ing duties retained until 1824 — Impolicy of protection — The lord- 
lieutenant going to parliament, in state — Battle-axe guards, or beef- 
eaters — The lord-chancellor and lord-mayor — Failure of the crops — 
Liberality of Lord Cornwallis. - - - • 44 



PART IX. 

The lord-mayor, sheriffs, aldermen, and common council of the city of 
Dublin — Manner of their election — Freemen of the several Guilds — 
Government of the city principally in the hands of the mechanics — 
Sir William Worthington — His marriage with the two widows — 
Dublin society — Botanic garden — General Valiancy — Theatres of 
Dublin — Eminent performers — Frederick Jones and the Dog of Mon- 
targis — Riot at the Crow Street Theatre, and entire destruction of the 
interior — Dibden and Belzoni — Eminent lawyers — Curran — McNally, 
O'Connell, Bushe, Barrington, Saurin, Ponsonby, Plunket, Ball, and 
Joy — Lords Clare, Redesdale, and Manners — Description of their 
persons. - » - - - - - 49 

PART X. 

Lord Cornwallis is succeeded by the Earl of Hardwicke — His great 
popularity — Robert Emmett — Thomas Addis Emmett— Counsellor 
Sampson— Emmett's insurrection — Murder of Lord Kilwarden and 
his nephew, Mr. Wolfe — Garrison of Dublin— Dispersion of Em- 
mett's men— Mounting guard—Trial of the insurgents — Redmond 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

attempts to commit suicide, in jail — His trial and execution — Arrest 
of Emmett — His trial, speech, and execution — Lord Norbury — Em- 
mett's depot — Miss Curran and her sister. - - 57 

PART XI. 

The Duke of Bedford, lord-lieutenant — Duchess of Bedford — Her loss at 
cards — Duchess of Gordon and the skip-rope — Duke of Richmond, 
lord-lieutenant — His duels with the Duke of York and Theophilus 
Swift — Mademoiselle Queraille — Duke of Wellington — Mr. Peel, 
Irish secretary, challenges O'Connell — Death of the Duke of Rich- 
mond, in Canada, of hydrophobia — Archibald Hamilton Rowan — His 
return from exile. - - - - - 69 

PART XII. 

Series of remarkable and fatal duels — Mr. Hatchell and Mr. Morley — 
Mr. Alcock and Mr. Colclough — Major Campbell and Captain Boyd — 
Execution of Major Campbell, for murder. - - 74 

PART XIII. 

The Author removes to the county of Meath — State of the country — 
Operation of carding a man's back — Js robbed, by three men, on the 
highway — Pursuit of the robbers, their arrest, and execution — Deadly 
conflict with the police — -Patroles organized by Gustavus Lambert and 
the author — Burglars taken and executed, and the neighbourhood 
cleared of marauders — Robbery of the Marquis Wellesley's agent, at 
Dangan Castle — Roger O'Connor tried for robbing the Cork mail. 77 



INCIDENTS RECALLED 



SKETCHES FROM MEMORY. 



PART I. 

First Machine for spinning Cotton-Twist, in Ireland, erected at Green- 
castle, by the author's father — First Cotton Mill built at Whitehouse— 
Protecting duties — Irish Volunteers — Grand Review — Lord Charle- 
mont — Duke of Leinster — Dungannon Convention — Whig Club — 
Lord Castlereagh — United Irish Society — Arrest of Nelson, Sampson, 
and others. 

My father, the late Nicholas Grimshaw, being the first 
that introduced the spinning "of cotton twist into Ireland, 
besides being a person of liberal education, and great public 
spirit, seems to have been a leading character, in his neigh- 
bourhood, from nearly his earliest settlement in the country. 
He was a native of Blackburn, in Lancashire, the birth-place 
of the late Sir Robert Peel; who, I have understood, was a 
near relation of my father's; and I know we have, in our fa- 
mily, the same Christian names as the Peels, viz. Thomas, 
Edmund, William, and Robert. My father and Mr. Peel 
were nearly of the same age, and commenced business about 
the same time ; but they were of very different dispositions ; 
the former being fond of improving his properly, by the plant- 
ing of trees, and other ornaments, and also passing his sum- 
mers at the fashionable watering-places in England ; incur- 
ring an expense, not altogether warranted in a manufacturer, 
having fourteen children to support. He was also unremit- 
tingly attentive to the interests of the public; to which, Mr. 
Peel, being a man of much less education than my father 
A 



10 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

was, in the early part of his career, but very slightly de- 
voted. 

The late Nicholas Grinishaw, who filled the office of 
mayor of the city of Preston, for more than forty consecu- 
tive years; and also the late Henry Fielding, of Garstang ; 
were first cousins of my father's. Our name is pure Anglo- 
Saxon, signifying " a dark wood;", and there is a dilapidated 
village, in Lancashire, in ancient times the residence of our 
family, from which it is derived. 

My father came to Ireland, as I can collect from the births 
registered in the family Bible, about the year 1776, shortly 
after the improved system of spinning cotton-twist, the in- 
vention of which seems, with justice, partly to be attributed 
to Richard (afterwards Sir Richard) Arkwright, had been 
brought to some degree of efficiency, if not of perfection 
His motive for settling in Ireland seems to have been two- 
fold, — first, to evade the operation of Arkwright's patent, 
(which did not, at any time, extend to Ireland,) and secondly, 
to reap advantage from the comparatively low rate of wages 
in that country. But in both these objects, he had evi- 
dently miscalculated. The advantage derived from the non- 
payment for the patent-right, was more than counterba- 
lanced by the isolated position in which he placed himself, 
with regard to the obtaining of machinery, and the speedy 
adoption of new improvements; and the difference of wages 
was equally countervailed, by the waste and expense attend- 
ing the instruction and training of raw hands. The conse- 
quence was, that, although the profits were considerable, 
owing to the infancy of the business, and the small compe- 
tition, yet, in the course of time, he found himself constrained 
to apply to the Irish Parliament, for protection, in the nature 
of what is now called a tariff, amounting to ten per cent, 
upon cotton-twist; and, subsequently, when he commenced 
the printing of calicoes, in which he becahie highly distin- 
guished for his taste and the permanency of his colours, he 
induced the parliament to impose a protective duty, also, on 
the latter article, amounting to more than one shilling per 
square yard; duties, which, it will appear, in the sequel, 
contributed rather to retard, than to accelerate the extension 
and perfection of the cotton manufacture, in Ireland. 

My father's first place of settlement was in the parish of 
Belfast, county of Antrim, about three miles north of that 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 11 

town, and five from the ancient, but poverty-stricken city, 
of Carrickfergus, on the site of an old linen bleach-green, or 
flax-mill, called Greencastle; where the writer of this me- 
moir was born. In a small building, still in existence, near 
the high-road, and the sea-shore, at a landing-place, known 
as the Lime-stones, was erected the first machinery for spin- 
ning cotton-twist in Ireland. The machine being circular, 
and kept in motion both day and night, realized, in the first 
year, the enormous sum of eighteen hundred pounds, or 
eight thousand dollars. The water, however, at Greencastle, 
being found insufficient for an extensive business, my father 
purchased another site, adjoining, and further to the north, 
situated in the parish of Carnmoney; upon which, is since 
erected the beautiful and extensive village of Whitehouse, 
still the property of my family, with more than three hun- 
dred dwelling-houses, and having appurtenant one hundred 
and seventy English acres of good land, surrounded by a 
plantation of trees, with other rural improvements; in which, 
my brothers take great delight. 

At Whitehouse, in conjunction with Mr. Nathaniel Wil- 
son, a gentleman of some enterprise and capital, a new cot- 
ton-mill was erected, in 1785, capable of holding four thou- 
sand spindles and preparation ; and, about ten years after- 
wards, by the enlargement of an old building, originally 
used for bleaching lawns, by a lady, named Tomb, another 
mill was organized, containing about an equal number of 
spindles; which was the greatest extent ever ventured on by 
any of the family; and these two mills, about twelve years 
ago, were converted to the purpose of spinning flax ; the 
spinning of cotton, in Ireland, having become almost wholly 
unprofitable, owing to the gigantic competition in Great Bri- 
tain. 

Belfast, which, at the time my father settled in its neigh- 
bourhood, contained only about ten thousand inhabitants, 
now reckons, at both sides of the Lagan, in the counties of 
Antrim and Down, not less than one hundred thousand. « 

One of my earliest recollections, is seeing my father in 
the uniform of the Whitehouse Volunteers, a fine body of 
men, principally farmers, sixty in number; of which, my 
father, on the removal from the neighbouring village of 
Whiteabbey, of Mr. Bateson, afterwards Sir Thomas Bate- 
son, became captain; having previously been first lieutenant. 



12 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

Mr. Bateson, with great liberality, presented to my father 
the whole armament, camp equipage, and equipments, which 
had all been provided at that gentleman's expense. The 
uniform was scarlet coats, with light green facings, cocked 
hats, short white small clothes, clubbed and powdered hair, 
and all the other inconvenient peculiarities of that day. The 
corps was distinguished, in the field, for its perfect disci- 
pline and correct firing; and the Blue Company, of Belfast, 
commanded by my brother-in-law, Mr. Robert Getty, an 
extensive shipping merchant of that port, was also a fine 
looking body of men, and equally admired for their soldierly 
appearance. 

I recollect, when a very little boy, being present at a grand 
review of a large body of volunteers, many thousand in num- 
ber, on the Plains, near Belfast; Lord Charlemont, com- 
mander of all the volunteers in Ulster, being at their head. 
The Duke of Leinster, the elder brother of Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald, was then commander-in-chief in Ireland, their 
numbers exceeding one hundred thousand. They were em- 
bodied, during the American Revolution, to repel a threat- 
ened invasion of the French; the whole number of regular 
troops, left in the island, I have heard my father say, not 
then amounting to three thousand. They elected their own 
officers, and furnished their own arms, accoutrements, and 
ammunition, wholly independent of any aid from the govern- 
ment. When, in the year 1782, the Irish Parliament, Henry 
Grattan being the leader in the House of Commons, com- 
menced that celebrated struggle, which eventuated in esta- 
blishing what was denominated their " Independence," a 
simultaneous movement was made by the volunteers ; three 
hundred companies of which, including the Whitehouse 
corps, elected their commanders, as delegates, and constituted 
what is known, in history, as the Dungannon Convention; 
causing the government to feel their weight, and to dread a 
power, which, after the peace which succeeded the independ- 
ence of the thirteen American colonies, and the destruction 
of the Bastile, in Paris, changed its original purpose, of de- 
fending the country against its external enemies, and now 
determined to effectuate a salutary change in several particu- 
lars; chiefly, as regarded parliamentary reform, Catholic 
emancipation, and abolition of tithes, not omitting, also, the 
abolition of the slave trade. This movement resulted in the 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 13 

formation, first of a Whig" Club in Belfast (afterwards modi- 
fied into the Society of United Irishmen,) without a test; of 
which, my father and my brother-in-law, the Honourable 
Robert Stewart, afterwards the famous Lord Castlereagh, 
the recently deceased Dr. White, of Baltimore, married to a 
sister of Mr. Getty, William and Robert Simms, Samuel 
Nelson, and other gentlemen, were members. This was 
succeeded by a more extended combination, under the same 
name, with a test and secret sign ; the avowed objects of 
which, were confined to parliamentary reform, Catholic 
emancipation, and the abolition of tithes ; but their ultimate 
design, doubtless, from the first, embraced a revolution, and 
entire separation from Great Britain. 

The government soon became alarmed, and, by means of 
suborned informers, obtained information with regard to the 
real objects of this formidable combination; which soon em- 
braced most of the respectable citizens, unconnected with 
the administration. Numerous arrests occurred. The first 
took place in 1796, when I was a student at the Belfast 
Academy; from which, I absented myself, one day, in order 
to bear a part in the excitement. I remember, about ten 
o'clock in the morning, when nearly opposite the Exchange, 
seeing Counsellor Sampson stop Samuel Nelson, and saying 
to him, " Sam, they are looking for you ;" when the other 
replied, " I have some little private business to attend to, and 
then I will give myself up." 

Sampson, as well as Nelson, was himself amongst the 
number of the prisoners, besides several others; of whom, I 
recollect Messrs. William and Robert Simms ; Mr. Richard- 
son, of the county of Tyrone, a relation of my family; Mr. 
William Tennent; Captain Russel, formerly an officer in the 
army; and Mr. Luke Teeling, a gentleman far advanced in 
years, the only Roman Catholic of the whole number, father 
of Bartholomew Teeling, who, having been taken prisoner, 
two years afterwards, near Killala, in the army of General 
Humbert, was executed for high treason. None of those 
gentlemen, arrested at that time, were then brought to trial, 
but, the habeas corpus act having been suspended, they all 
suffered a tedious imprisonment; and, of Captain Russell, I 
shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 

2* 



14 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 



PART II. 

Belfast Academy — Rev. Dr. Bruce — David Manson — Robert Telfair — 
The way in which Candlemas was kept, at the schools, half a century 
ago— Barring out — Serious affair at the Belfast Academy — A ball 
fired through Mrs. Bruce's cap — Examinations, and mode of award- 
ing premiums — The De Courcy family — Sons of the nobility, and 
coloured children, at the same school — Sir Henry Pottinger — Lord 
Kinsale, and the King of England. 

Having spoken of the Belfast Academy, at that time, and, 
for many previous and subsequent years, under the su- 
perintendence of the learned and highly accomplished Wil- 
liam Bruce, D. D., a minister of one of the Unitarian con- 
gregations of Belfast, more generally known as " new-light 
Presbyterian," I shall here digress from my political narra- 
tive, in order to give the reader some idea of the peculiarities 
of the time, with regard to the observance of a certain fast- 
day in the church, and the conduct of the scholars, at some 
of the seminaries in the north of Ireland. 

The first public school to which I recollect being sent, 
was that kept in Donegall Street, adjoining the Brown Linen 
Hall, by Mr. David Manson ; author of several highly popu- 
lar elementary books, for youth ; a man not less eminent for 
his success in giving instruction to children of both sexes, in 
the primary branches of an English education (not including 
either writing or arithmetic) than remarkable for the origin- 
ality and peculiarity of his discipline, and beloved for the 
'amiable qualities of his heart. The anniversary of Candle- 
mas was observed, in this school, by the presentation, to the 
master, of small sums of money, varying from one to two 
shillings, by each scholar ; the boy who made the largest 
present being honoured with the title of king; the girl, of 
queen; and placed at the head of the form or bench. Then, 
came the entertainment; which consisted of a glass of good 
warm wine-negus, and a nice biscuit, to each ; and the 
scholars were dismissed. At the writing-school, kept in 
High Street, near the old Market House, by Mr. Robert 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 15 

Telfair, the entertainment was something of the same cha- 
racter, but differed from it, in this, that, instead of wine-negus, 
we were treated to a glass of good strong hot whiskey-punch, 
and the scholars who were gifted with any vocal accomplish- 
ments, were assembled around the master's desk, and amused 
their companions with various specimens of their peculiar 
powers, some of them highly amusing; as there were mostly 
present young men, who, having embraced a sea-faring life, 
were perfecting themselves in the art of writing. As a writ- 
ing master, Mr. Telfair (a native of Scotland) was not only 
eminent, but remarkable, having only one finger and one 
thumb, and these on his left hand; yet, notwithstanding this 
serious privation, there was not, in the whole island, a pro- 
fessor of chirography, who wrote a more rapid and beautiful 
hand, or could castigate an unruly or slow-learning urchin 
with more adroitness and effect. 

A species of "lynch law," called "barring out," was, at 
this period, not unfrequently practised against the masters. 
On the death of the lamented Manson, I was placed at what 
was called the " New Academy," in Ann Street, Belfast, 
under the superintendence of the Rev. Jacob Stewart and 
Mr. Macnamara. The boys had demanded some vacation, 
not assented to by the heads of the seminary ; and the 
boarders, aided by a few of the largest of the day-scholars, 
got up a " barring out," which continued for several days. 
Even ladies in the neighbourhood, supplied the revolters 
with provisions ; which were hoisted up, in a satchel, to one 
of the windows, by means of a rope. How this affair ter- 
minated, I cannot now remember ; but it was the precursor 
of a much more serious issue, of the same kind, between the 
boarders of the Old Academy, in Donegall Street, and the 
principal, Dr. Bruce. The boarders were sixty in number, 
the day-scholars more than twice that number; and the for- 
mer, having made demands, to which the stern disposition 
of Dr. Bruce would not permit him to accede, took posses- 
sion of two of the school-rooms, which they barricaded, so 
as totally to exclude the teachers. The intercession of the 
Rev. Mr. Bristow, the venerated sovereign or chief magis- 
trate of the town, and, by virtue of his office, president of the 
board of the institution, failed to induce the youths to yield. 
They increased their stock of provisions, by cutting a hole 
through the floor, and descending into the pantry of Mrs. 



16 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

Bruce; and, when that most estimable lady approached the 
outer doors of the chamber, in order to effect a compromise, 
a ball was discharged from a pistol, which penetrated the 
door, actually passed through her cap, and was flattened 
against the opposite wall. I cannot believe that the $pung 
men were aware of the proximity of Mrs. Bruce; nor that 
young Arbuckle, to whom the pistol was said to belong, 
would, knowingly, have been guilty of so unmanly an out- 
rage. The ball, however, in its flattened state, was thrown 
to the crowd, assembled outside of the building, and I had it 
in my hand. 

After this unhappy state of things had subsisted for several 
days, the young men, at the intercession of Mr. Brislow, 
surrendered, it was said, on condition that M not a hair of 
their heads should be touched." But if their hair was not 
touched, their backs did not escape; for the ring-leaders 
were stripped to the buff, tied to the desks, and most severely 
flogged, and dismissed; which reminds one of the assurance 
given, by Charles the First, to his friend Lord Strafford, 
when threatened with impeachment by the House of Com- 
mons, that " if he came up to London, not a hair of his head 
should be touched;" yet, when found guilty by the House 
of Lords, his majesty, most inhumanly and disgracefully, 
suffered him to be executed, without offering to interpose 
the royal pardon. 

The semi-annual examinations were held in the Library, 
and were conducted, at that distinguished seminary, in the 
most solemn and impartial manner. All the literati of the 
town and neighbourhood, were invited to witness the recitals, 
to interrogate the students, and award the premiums. The 
teachers were not permitted to ask a single question, but 
merely designated the portions of any particular classical or 
English work, or the rules of arithmetic, &c, in which the 
scholars had previously been directed, by the masters, to 
prepare themselves; nor were the names of the scholars dis- 
closed to the examiners ; to whom, tickets were given, with 
numbers written upon them, which were deposited in the 
hat of the president, and by him counted, and the successful 
candidate declared. The president, with his golden chain, 
the emblem of his office, as sovereign or chief magistrate of 
the borough, sat at the head of a long oval table, covered 
with handsome green cloth, the classes being arranged at the 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 17 

opposite end ; the teachers at one side of the table, and the 
examiners at the other. 

My fellow-citizens of the United States will doubtless be 
startled, when I inform them, that, at this celebrated academy 
were to be seen young lads of colour, sent, by their fathers, 
for education, both from the East and the West Indies, in- 
termingled with the sons of the proudest gentry and nobility 
in the land. Cotemporary with myself, were a brother of 
the celebrated Theobald Wolfe Tone, Thomas, Henry, and 
Eldred Pottinger — the second brother recently so distin- 
guished as the British Commissioner in China; also, four 
youths, closely related to the De Courcy family, nephews of 
Admiral De Courcy, and Lord Viscount Kinsale; two of 
whom, John and William Meade, were my class-mates, in 
the classical department. Their father was a clergyman of 
the established church, universally respected and beloved, 
for his amiable qualities, and vicar of the parish of Carn- 
money, distant a few miles from Belfast, where my family 
reside. But the saered profession, neither of the principal 
of the institution, nor of their father, restrained these boys 
from partaking in the pugilistic encounters, in which nearly 
every student of the academy occasionally indulged, in set 
matches. I saw John Meade, a large and heavily-made lad, 
for his age, actually fight four boys, not younger than him- 
self, in a field within view from the library windows, until, 
exhausted by his exertions, he fell down with his clenched 
hands upon the sod; and we put an end to the contest. 

Nearly every one has heard of the peculiar honour con- 
ferred upon an ancestor of Lord Kinsale, by one of the 
Kings of England. Having performed some important ser- 
vice in the army, his majesty asked De Courcy, what favour 
he could confer upon him, that would be acceptable; when 
the gallant soldier simply asked, for himself and his de- 
scendants, the privilege " of wearing his hat in presence of 
the king,** 



18 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 



PART III. 

Town of Belfast — Chichester family — Marquis of Donegall — His im- 
mense estates — No daughters born in the family for a century and a 
half — Earl of Belfast — Is beset by gamblers — His bond for a gam- 
bling debt, cancelled, on his marrying a daughter of Sir Edward May 
— Serious predicament, caused by .a misnomer — Great assemblage of 
the Irish harpers at Belfast — Lord Massereene — His escape from 
prison, in France — His eccentricities — Marries his house-keeper — 
Death, post-mortem examination, and burial of Lady Massereene's 
dog — Lord Annesley marries his gardener's wife — Lord Erskihe, his 
house-keeper — Miss Farren, the actress, becomes Countess of Derby 
— Miss Mellon, Duchess of St. Albans. 

The foundation of the town of Belfast, situated at the 
mouth of the river Lagan, at the head of the bay, in the 
county of Antrim, and province of Ulster, is of great anti- 
quity; and little is known of its history, until garrisoned, at 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the reign of 
James the First, by one of the Chichester family, ancestor 
of the present Marquis of Donegall. The estates of this no- 
bleman, chiefly in the counties of Antrim and Donegall, em- 
brace not less than seventy thousand acres, yielding an 
annual income of sixty thousand pounds, rented at very mo- 
derate rates, on an average not half the value of the land. 
Of this estate, my family hold, in perpetuity, or by lease of 
lives renewable for ever, by presenting a pepper-corn, as a 
fine, for each renewal, as I have before stated, one hundred 
and seventy acres, worth, with the improvements, not less 
than fifty thousand pounds, at an annual rent- of only sixty 
pounds; but my father paid pretty large sums, to several 
tenants, for ancient leases. It is remarkable, what I have 
heard, that, since about the year 1690, when the old mansion 
or castle of the Chichester family was accidentally destroyed 
by fire, in which a lady of the family lost her life, not a sin- 
gle female child of the name has been born ; although I know 
that the father of the present marquis, who died about three 
years ago, had a dozen sons. 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 19 

The Chichester family have always been liberal landlords; 
and it is much to be regretted, that the recently deceased 
marquis, during 1 the whole course of a long life (for he died 
in his 76th year) should have been labouring under pecuniary 
embarrassments. Before he had completed his thirtieth 
year, then bearing the title of the Earl of Belfast, he fell into 
the company of persons, in London, who induced him to 
play for large sums. To the late Sir Edward May, he lost 
not less than twenty thousand pounds ; and he at length 
found himself confined within the ^ rules" of the Fleet 
Prison. His principal tenants — my father amongst the num- 
ber — subscribed, to release him; and Sir Edward, having 
a daughter of distinguished beauty, his lordship's bond for 
the amount of the gambling debt, was offered to be cancelled, 
on condition of his becoming her husband ; a proposal which 
was readily accepted. Though, however, this lady was of 
a truly amiable disposition, the marriage had nearly proved 
fatal to the regular succession of his children, to their father's 
titles and estates. When the present marquis, then Earl of 
Belfast, had come of age, and had entered into a marriage 
contract with the (laughter of an English nobleman, the day 
before that which was fixed for the solemnization of the ma- 
trimonial union, an anonymous letter was written to the 
young lady's father, cautioning him against giving his (laugh- 
ter to the earl, on the ground of his being illegitimate, by 
reason of some irregularity in the marriage of his mother. 
The ceremony was consequently postponed; and a bill 
having been filed in the English Chancery (the marquis 
being also a British peer, by the title of Baron Fisherwicke) 
to perpetuate the testimony of witnesses, it appeared, that 
when Sir Edward May intermarried with the mother of the 
marchioness, a previous wife of his, whom he had supposed 
dead, was then living on the Continent ; the second mar- 
riage was therefore a nullity : the maiden name of the mar- 
chioness was not May — the name of her father — but, in 
conformity with the English common law, it was that of her 
mother. The marchioness was therefore married by a mis- 
nomer, and her numerous family, as well as herself, her sister, 
Mrs. Vernon, and her brother, Sir Stephen May, were all 
illegitimate. This was a most unfortunate and heart-rending 
calamity ; but, by the friendly interposition of Lord Castle- 
reagh, then prime-minister of England, an act of parliament 



20 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

was obtained, curing the defect of the marriage of the mar- 
quis with the baronet's daughter, and conferring upon the 
children all the rights ensuing from legal wedlock. 

For a long series of years, Belfast had been distinguished, 
in Ireland, for its public spirit. First in commerce and 
manufactures, it was also, in proportion to its pecuniary re- 
sources, first in the advancement of the sciences and liberal 
arts. Observing, with deep regret, the rapid decrease of its 
national minstrels, a number of gentlemen, of that town and 
its vicinity — my father being included — formed a society, 
for preserving from extinction the soul-stirring melodies of 
the Irish harp; and, for that purpose, invited, from every 
part of the kingdom, the performers upon that instrument 
who still remained. They assembled, at the Exchange 
Rooms, on the 12th of July, 1792; and, premiums having 
been offered for the best performers, Mr. Edward Bunting, 
an eminent professor of music, was engaged, to take down 
the tunes, as they were successively played. About thirty 
airs were accordingly noted ; and these, with some addi- 
tional parts, or rather harmonies, added, many years after- 
wards, by Sir John Stephenson, with appropriate verses, by 
Mr. Thomas Moore, of Dublin, form those exquisite pieces, 
known as the Irish Melodies; which seem destined to delight 
the lovers of tender, pathetic, and impassioned music, as long 
as an ear for harmony shall exist. 

I have a faint recollection of a visit, to my father, of an 
eccentric nobleman, the Earl of Massereene, then recently 
returned from imprisonment in France. The prevailing im- 
pression was, that Lord Massereene had been confined in 
the Bastile, whence he had escaped, when that fortress was 
stormed and destroyed by the populace, on the 14th of July, 
1789. But this supposition was erroneous. The earl had 
not been --a prisoner of state, but had been confined in one of 
the ordinary municipal jails, for debt; having been induced, 
by a set of swindlers, to give them his notes, or bonds, under 
pretence that they were concerned in some extensive mining 
operations, promising, to his lordship and themselves, an ex- 
orbitant return. These securities having been negotiated, 
and not paid when they arrived at maturity, the earl was ar- 
rested, by the holders, and imprisoned; and it was by the 
aid of a young woman, a daughter of the keeper of the prison, 
who accompanied him in his escape, that his liberation was 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 21 

effected. I was intimately acquainted with the late Mr. 
Warren, Lord Massereene's attorney; who, twenty years 
afterwards, informed me, that a suit was then pending, in the 
Irish Chancery, for the recovery of the amount due upon 
some of those responsibilities ; but, how it terminated, I 
never made inquiry. 

Lord Massereene was a very singular character. Enjoy- 
ing only a comparatively small income, about four thousand 
pounds per annum, he spent a secluded life, principally at 
his residence near Antrim, called Massereene Castle; to the 
top of which he was hoisted, daily, by means of a windlass, 
whence he had a prospect of Lough Neagh, and its surround- 
ing shores. I have several times seen him at the theatre in 
Dublin; in which city, also, he had a house, in Merion 
Square, in the company of an elderly lady, whom he had 
married, late in life, his former house-keeper, a Mrs. Black- 
burne. 

Unequal marriages, amongst the nobility of Europe, are 
not so unfrequent, as to cause much astonishment in society. 
The superannuated Earl of Annesley, having taken a fan- 
cy to the handsome young widow of his own gardener, 
snared with her his coronet. I have seen her, also, at the 
same theatre ; but not with her aged lord, as she preferred 
the company of younger men. The late Duchess of St. 
Albans, likewise, I have seen upon the stage, in Liverpool, 
as Miss Mellon; Lord Erskine, at the age of seventy, mar- 
ried his house-keeper ; and the mother of the distinguished 
statesman, Lord Stanley, was Miss Farren, a celebrated 
comedian, taken from histrionic life by his lordship's father, 
the Earl of Derby. 

When residing in Merion Square, a favourite dog of Lady 
Massereene's, notwithstanding the attendance of several emi- 
nent physicians, paid the debt of nature. It seemed quite 
an unusual incident, that so highly valued a pet, the beloved 
of a countess, should die ; and, to ascertain the cause of so 
extraordinary an occurrence, a post-mortem examination was 
held ; and the afflicting scene was ended, by enclosing the 
body of the dear animal in a leaden coffin, with his name 
and character inscribed thereon ; and, after pouring forth a 
copious flood of tears, transmitting it, for interment, amongst 
the feudal ancestors of her noble partner, in the family vault 
o 



22 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

at Massereene Castle, a distance of more than one hundred 
miles. 

On the death of Lord Massereene, his brother, the Hon. 
Henry Skeffington, who inherited the title and estates, dis- 
puted the validity of her ladyship's marriage, but she held 
possession of the castle ; and it was not until a handsome 
dower was secured to her, that she could be induced to open 
the gates for the reception of the new lord; after which, she 
married a young man, named Doran, the son of a clergyman, 
who had originally officiated in the church of Rome. 



PART IV. 

Commemoration, at Belfast, of the destruction of the Bastile — Volunteers 
suppressed and disarmed — General search for arms — Execution of 
William Orr — Plan for his escape — Earl of Carhampton (formerly, 
Colonel Luttrell) commander-in-chief — His visit to Belfast — Scene 
with the teacher at the poor-house — His father and grandfather — In- 
terview between his lordship and the author's father, at the Castle, 
in Dublin — Is annoyed by the tailor, with squibs and crackers — My 
father saved from arrest, by a game of cards. 

Belfast may be considered as the cradle of that extended 
confederacy, which resulted in the rebellion of 1798. 

The first open demonstration of the political sentiments of 
the leading spirits of republicanism, occurred shortly after 
the destruction of the Bastile. An immense number of per- 
sons, chiefly connected with the celebrated Volunteer Asso- 
ciation, dined together, at the White Linen Hall, in Belfast; 
most of whom had marched from distant parts of the coun- 
try, in regular corps. The banners exhibited in the proces- 
sion which preceded the dinner, borne by the sons of the 
principal leaders, were of the most significant description ; 
bearing the portraits of Franklin, Mirabeau, and other dis- 
tinguished advocates of freedom, and the rights of man; that 
of the former having the well-known motto, " Where Liberty 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 23 

is, there is my country;" and the toasts, drunk after dinner, 
were of a character the most marked and violent. One of 
the volunteer companies, known as the " Reds," to distin- 
guish them from the " Blues," changed the style of their 
uniform and insignia; substituting green jackets for the red; 
and, instead of a button with the Harp surmounted by the 
Irish Crown, inverted the order of those insignia, by placing 
the English Crown under the Harp. This imprudent act 
soon elicited the attention and vigilance of the Irish Govern- 
ment. The volunteers were declared, by proclamation, an 
illegal and treasonable association; and searches were insti- 
tuted, in every part of the North of Ireland, for their arms, 
and indeed for arms of every description. My father's and 
brother's houses, amongst the rest, were frequently visited by 
the military; and everything of the kind, not previously 
concealed, carried off. Even the pewter plates and dishes, 
at that time in common use among the farmers, were seized, 
lest they might be converted into bullets; and the conduct 
of the soldiers, in the discharge of that duty, especially of 
the Irish Militia, was ill-calculated to arrest a spirit of sedi- 
tion. Matters grew every day more serious. In every part 
of the kingdom, societies of United Irishmen were organized ; 
and all my brothers, of sufficient age, as well as myself, then 
only in my fifteenth year, were enrolled as members ; whilst 
arms, including pikes, were collected and manufactured, and 
carefully concealed. The number of United Irishmen, of 
the Protestant religion, was not less than one hundred and 
twenty thousand. 

The first person executed for his connection with the 
United Irish Society, was William Orr; a respectable farmer, 
who resided near Donegor Hill, a few miles distant from my 
father's house. The oath taken by the United Irishmen, 
was not, in itself treasonable ; but it was made so, by a sort 
of ex post facto act of the Irish Parliament ; by the provi- 
sions of which, any person who had taken the oath of the 
society, and omitted, within a defined period, to go before a 
magistrate, and take the oath of allegiance, was to be ad- 
judged guilty of high-treason. Orr, not having complied 
with this requisition, was arrested, on the oath of a soldier, 
who testified that the former had tendered the obnoxious 
oath to him ; and, on the unsupported evidence of that man, 
a fellow of infamous character, Orr was convicted; and, after 



24 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 



several respites from the lord-lieutenant, executed, at Car- 
rickfergus, in the summer, I think, of 1796. I remember 
seeing his coffin conveyed, on a car, along the shore-road, 
past my father's place, and immense crowds, of both sexes, 
hurrying to witness the melancholy scene. Every boat in 
the harbour was put in requisition for the occasion ; the 
gallows, consisting of three pillars, standing on the Commons, 
near Carrickfergus, close by the sea. 

The conviction of Orr had excited the liveliest sympathy, 
amongst that portion of the community, who were then ar- 
rayed in sentiment against the government, especially as he 
had been tried under an ex post facto law ; the only witness 
against him having been a soldier of bad repute, who had so- 
licited initiation, for the very purpose of convicting him ; and, 
moreover, one of the jury was said to have been intoxicated, 
by spirits conveyed into the jury-room, by the connivance of 
the sheriff. While his case was discussed by the privy 
council, a design was formed, by several of his friends, to 
enable him to escape from prison; a large sum of money 
was collected, for the purpose of bribing the sons of the 
jailer, named Hamilton; and, had they not quarrelled 
amongst themselves, with regard to the division of the cor- 
rupting gold, Orr, most probably would have escaped. Not- 
withstanding that disappointment, however, it was arranged 
that he could quit the prison, by the putting to death of one 
sentinel; but Orr was too humane, and too just, to save his 
own life by the assassination of an innocent person, in the 
legitimate discharge of his duty; and, with perfect resigna- 
tion, suffered the penalty of the law. 

Some time previously to the breaking out of the rebellion 
of '98, the town of Belfast was visited by the Earl of Car- 
hampton, in the capacity of commander-in-chief of the forces 
in Ireland. This is the same mdividual, known as Colonel 
Luttrell, that contested the election of the county of Middle- 
sex, in England, against the celebrated John Home Tooke. 
He was a man of infamous private character; and the man- 
ner in which he was admitted as a sitting member of the 
House of Commons, notwithstanding his opponent had a 
majority of votes, is severely commented on in 'he letters 
bearing the signature of Junius. During his stay in Belfast, 
he lodged at the Donegall Arms, in High Street; and, when 
proceeding to the Barracks, to inspect the troops, he had oc- 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 25 

casion to pass the Poor House, situated on the Carrickfergus 
Road. The teacher employed by that institution, was a tall 
man, who wore a large blue cloak, which completely enve- 
loped his person, and partly covered his face, looking like a 
resuscitation of the renowned Guy Fawkes ; and, having 
read in the history of Ireland an account of the treachery 
perpetrated by his lordship's ancestor, by which the Irish 
army was defeated by King William's troops, in the year 
1690, at Aughrim; and, also heard of the earl's own father 
having sold himself to the devil, on condition that his Satanic 
majesty would build for him a mill, on the river Liffey, a 
few miles above Dublin, he felt naturally desirous to get a 
peep at his notorious descendant. Taking his station, daily, 
at the gate, he seemed completely absorbed by the object of 
his curiosity, until, at length, the commander-in-chief, sup- 
posing that his ample robe concealed some deadly weapon, 
for the purpose of assassination, he, one day, leaped from 
his horse, and, with his own hands, threw open the cloak, 
and demanded what the astonished teacher meant, by thus 
staring at him, as he passed. The poor man w r as thunder- 
struck; and, in his trepidation, was able only to utter, with 
tremulous volubility, " Pardon me, my lord, this time, and I 
declare I never will look at your lordship again, as long as I 
live!" upon which, he was released. 

A serious affray soon afterwards broke out, in that ill-fated 
town. Orders having been sent from Dublin, supposed at the 
instigation of Lord Carhampton, to pull down all the signs sus- 
pended from the public houses, exhibiting portraits of such ob- 
noxious characters as Franklin, Dumorier, &c, the twenty-se- 
cond dragoons were turned loose, for that purpose, and threat- 
ened the destruction of half the buildings in the borough, until 
arrested, in their career, by the drums of the volunteers beat- 
ing to arms, and the mounting of guards by those patriotic 
corps. — One of the signs, which exhibited Franklin, being 
of copper, cost the enraged troopers many a sabre ; and the 
next morning saw the obnoxious appendage still swinging, 
with the portrait of the American philosopher, but slashed, 
all over his body and face, with the blades of the shattered 
swords. 

A few months after that occurrence, my father was de- 
puted, by the manufacturers of Belfast and its vicinity, to 

3* 



26 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

proceed to Dublin, in order to solicit a loan of money from 
the government, to lighten the pressure caused by the war 
with France. One day, at the Treasury Office, at the castle, 
my father fell into conversation with his lordship, on the 
prominent topics of the day. Amongst other matters, Lord 
Carhampton said, that when he went last to Belfast, had his 
advice been taken by the government, he would have carried 
with him a park of artillery, sufficient to level that rebellious 
town with the ground ; that it was a nest of hornets, and 
that the people would neither lead, nor be driven; that, when 
stopping at the Donegall Arms, he could get no sleep, owing 
to the continued discharge of squibs and crackers, which he 
then supposed were fired off, in the street, in front of his 
lodgings, by some loyal individuals, in honour of his pre- 
sence amongst them ; but, to his great amazement, he was 
informed, that this apparent rejoicing was caused by one 

Cuthbert, a d d rebellious tailor, recently enlarged from 

prison, who had employed a number of idle boys, in that 
manner to disturb his sleep. 

" When, at that time, in Belfast, Mr. Grimshaw," his 
lordship continued, "I carried with me a secretary of state's 
warrant, to arrest you for high-treason. Recollecting, how- 
ever, that, not long before, I had sailed in company with a 
gentleman of your name, from Holyhead to this city, I made 
inquiry, in Belfast, and found, that you were the same per- 
son ; and, although, from the conversation which then en- 
sued between us, I perceived that your political sentiments 
were a good deal more liberal than my own ; yet, not con- 
sidering that you were that dangerous character, which you 
had been represented to the government, I carried the writ 
back, and returned it to the proper office." 

The escape of my father from a tedious imprisonment, was 
owing to quite a fortuitous circumstance. The packet hav- 
ing reached Dublin, at an hour of the night, too late to 
proceed to the better part of the city, in order to obtain 
lodgings at one of the first-class hotels, they took up their 
quarters at a house frequented chiefly by masters of vessels, 
called the Marine Hotel, on Sir John Rogerson's Quay ; 
and, instead of going to bed, called for cards, and my father 
and Lord Carhampton played, at the same table, until 
morning. 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 27 

Amongst the distinguished individuals, by whom my fa- 
ther was visited, during this eventful period, was Mr. Arthur 
O'Connor, of the county of Cork ; shortly before, an elo- 
quent member of the House of Commons. He had been 
disinherited, it was said, by his uncle, Lord Longueville, for 
the liberal sentiments expressed by him, not only in that 
body, but also in a celebrated journal, published for some 
time in Dublin, and afterwards discontinued, by the inter- 
ference of the government, called the Press. Mr. O'Connor 
was a tall, well-made, and remarkably handsome man, then 
about five and thirty years of age; and, having taken a lease 
of a beautiful country-seat, in our neighbourhood, in order, it 
was suspected, to indulge in his revolutionary propensities, 
was arrested, and continued in prison, until he subsequently 
consented to exile himself; when he retired to Paris, and 
there commenced, and continued for a long series of years, 
a journal, in the English language, called the Argus. 

Belfast, also,.had its gazette, called the Northern Star, con- 
ducted by the Messrs. Simms, Dr. Drennan, Samuel Nelson, 
the Rev. Dr. Porter (father of the late Mr. Porter, senator in 
congress, from Louisiana,) and others, with equal fearless- 
ness and talent. It shared a similar fate with the Press, but 
was doomed to a more violent death ; the types, cases, and 
every article connected with it, having been thrown out of 
the windows, into the street, by a party of the artillery corps, 
employed, for that purpose, by the commander of the gar- 
rison. 

Dr. Porter, who had delivered several courses of lectures, 
at Whitehouse, on Natural and Experimental Philosophy, 
was afterwards executed, near his own meeting-house, on a 
charge of having instructed the people in the manufacture of 
gun-powder; and Dr. Drennan died, a few years ago, in the 
city of New York. 



28 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 



PART V. 

Battle of Antrim — Death of Lord O'Neil — The sergeant's horse — Battle of 
Saintfield — Of Ballinahinch — Extensive conflagration — Our property 
carried on board a vessel — Patrol of cavalry endeavour to board us 
— We slip our cable, and escape. Earl of Camden recalled — Mar- 
quis Cornwallis appointed lord-lieutenant — His humane and judicious 
policy — Country tranquilized — The people deliver up their arms. 

The great movement, that had been for nearly three years 
in preparation, at length burst forth into action. On the 7th 
of June, just fourteen days after the first outbreak in the 
neighbourhood of Dublin, the battle of Antrim occurred. 
Early in the morning of that day, a number of our working 
people took possession of the smith's shop and timber yard, 
and commenced the manufacturing of pikes ; small parties of 
cavalry occasionally passing into Belfast, at a full trot, and 
with an expression on their faces, of no little degree of alarm, 
carrying despatches to the commander of the royal forces. 
My father's people were excused, by the leaders of the 
United Irishmen, from engaging in that battle, lest, in the 
event of their defeat, his extensive buildings and machinery, 
upon which many hundred families depended for subsistence, 
might be destroyed ; for, besides the workers in the factories, 
and the print-works, he employed, at that period, more than 
a thousand hand-loom weavers, in different parts of the inte- 
rior. A meeting of the magistrates of the county was to be 
held that day, in the town of Antrim, 1 situated about ten 
miles from Whitehouse ; and this was thought, by the peo- 
ple, a convenient opportunity for seizing hostages, and car- 
rying them into the mountains, so as to protect themselves, 
in case of capture, from being shot, as rebels. But, in the 
exercise of this design, great inhumanity was practised. 
The Earl of O'Neil, of Shane's Castle, descended from an 
Irish chieftain, the O'Neil, who defeated the Earl of Essex, 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 29 

in the reign of Elizabeth, was cruelly assassinated, by the 
pike-men, when on his way to attend that meeting; and, be- 
fore the arrival of the royal reinforcements, a troop of the 
twenty-second light dragoons were nearly all killed, or 
wounded, together with Colonel Lumley, their commander. 

A remarkable instance of the sagacity and affection of the 
horse, was exhibited on that occasion. The killed and 
wounded of the military, were conveyed up to the second 
story of the market-house, by means of a stone stair-case, 
outside of the building; and a sergeant of the dragoons, mor- 
tally wounded, having been carried thither by his comrades, 
his faithful steed, also mortally wounded, ascended at the 
same time ; and, at the conclusion of the battle, was seen 
lying on the floor, stretched by the body of his deceased 
master. 

The royal forces proceeded from different stations to the 
town of Antrim — from Carrickfergus, Lisburn, and Belfast — 
the last-mentioned party, consisting of the Monaghan Militia, 
a detachment of the twenty-second dragoons, and of the Royal 
Irish Artillery, commanded by General Nugent, by the way of 
Whitehouse, passing up the avenue close by the gate of our 
demesne. The report of cannon told us when the battle had 
begun. In the evening, the arrival of a few wounded men, 
who had been residing in the village, brought the intelligence, 
not altogether unexpected, that the people had been defeated ; 
and, the following day, we were informed of the plunder of 
the town, by the militia; by which, my father, having about 
two hundred weavers in the place, suffered a heavy loss. 

In our garden, eating strawberries at the time the troops 
were passing on their way to Antrim, was a young gentle- 
man, named Elliott ; proscribed on account of his political 
opinions, and not unlikely to have his earthly career sud- 
denly curtailed, did he fall into the hands of the royal gene- 
ral. He was waiting the sailing of a vessel to the United 
States ; and, a few days afterwards, we took him in our 
boat — a remarkably fast sailer — and, having reached the ship, 
then anchored in the channel, about three miles from the 
shore, we passed stealthily around her, and put himself and 
his trunk on board. We had not gone far, however, on our 
return, when we perceived a boat, despatched from a king's 
vessel, anchored a few hundred yards off, rowing in pursuit 
of us ; but, notwithstanding that they plied their double pair 



30 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

of oars with all their might, our boat outsailed them, and we 
reached the shore unmolested, except having suffered consi- 
derable alarm. 

The protection of our family, at that period, was not con- 
fined to the disaffected. A few of my father's workmen, 
recently from England, who had not been initiated into the 
arcana of the revolutionary movement, sought an asylum in 
our house; and, for many weeks, we sat up, until the dawn 
of morning, receiving visits from the horse patroles, who 
had been invited to call, on their rounds, and partake of some 
refreshment; which was given to all, without stint. 

The day after the battle of Antrim, there occurred, in the 
adjoining county of Down, a most serious conflict, between 
the country people and the York Fencibles ; a regiment pre- 
viously canfoned in the neighbouring villages, and then on 
its way, for greater security, to Belfast. Proceeding incau- 
tiously, without either flanking parties or an advanced guard, 
when ascending a hill, a short distance from Saintfield, the 
road being lined, on each side, by a raised ditch, surmounted 
by a lofty hedge, they were assailed by a most destructive 
fire of musketry, from persons placed in ambuscade ; when 
the regiment, taken completely by surprise, was broken, and 
fled in confusion, until, having reached an eminence in the 
road, where two pieces of cannon, with which, in common 
with all other regiments in Ireland, they were happily pro- 
vided, were brought to bear upon their pursuers, who sud- 
denly dispersed ; having killed so many of the unfortunate 
royalists, that they never afterwards paraded in the king- 
dom. 

The destruction of the boats, on the Antrim side of the 
bay, indicated that the general expected another battle, in the 
county of Down ; and, on the 11th of June, we could plainly 
distinguish the glittering arms of the royal forces, winding 
their way up the mountains, on their march from Belfast to 
Ballinahinch ; where the rebels had collected in considerable 
numbers. About noon, there was distinctly heard, from our 
village, a severe cannonade, commenced on the side of the 
royal army; and the result of the contest was, for some 
time, doubtful, when, at length, owing to some disagreement 
between two of the principal commanders of the country 
people, the latter retreated to the woods, and, on the follow- 
ing morning, dispersed. 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 31 

During the cannonade, our people were busily employed 
packing up every piece, both of finished and unfinished ma- 
nufactured goods, and also our plate and some bedding; 
which were conveyed on board a flat-bottomed vessel, con- 
veniently stationed to receive them, with the design of car- 
rying them to Stranraer, on the opposite coast of Scotland, 
should circumstances render such a measure afterwards ad- 
visable. I was sent on board with the last load, and found, 
concealed in the vessel, two men, who had been proscribed 
for their political principles. In the course of the night, 
elated, it is probable, by the chance of escape, and, perhaps 
having indulged a little in drink, they began to make a con- 
siderable noise, which, attracting the notice of a horse-patrol, 
then passing along the shore, a corporal's guard was seen 
splashing through the flowing tide, and rapidly approaching 
the vessel. We prevented their visit, however, by slipping 
our cable; and, half an hour afterwards, we were safely an- 
chored in the channel, far distant from the possibility of any 
similar intrusion. Single reports of cannon, and volleys of 
musketry, discharged at the battle-ground, were heard by us, 
throughout the night; and, in a few days afterwards, we 
were boarded by a boat, belonging to one of the revenue 
barges, bringing one of my brothers ; who informed us that 
all danger was now passed, and that we might return with 
our cargo ; which could not have been less in value than 
twenty thousand pounds. 

The day after the battle of Ballinahinch, it was distressing 
to witness the devastation that ensued, throughout the sur- 
rounding country. As far as the eye could reach, the ridge, 
intervening between Saintfield and Belfast, presented an al- 
most continuous blaze; and, throughout the kingdom, entire 
villages were destroyed by the military, which were never 
afterwards rebuilt. I well remember the prediction then 
made, that " a whole century would elapse, before the coun- 
try could recover from the destructive effects of the rebellion ;" 
and yet, the autumn had not far advanced, before trade had 
resumed more than its usual vigour; money became again 
abundant, and the people were fully employed at their usual 
vocations. 

The rebellion was now over, in the North of Ireland. 
But, in the provinces of Munster and Leinster, it continued, 
with unabated fury. The cruel policy, embraced by the 



32 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

Earl of Camden, then lord-lieutenant of the kingdom, in- 
stigated, it was supposed, by his secretary of state, Lord Vis- 
count Castlereagh, instead of allaying, had the effect of ag- 
gravating the miseries of civil war; and, it was not until that 
nobleman was recalled, and the Marquis Cornwallis sent 
over in his place, that the people could be induced to aban- 
don their arms, and return to their deserted homes. A gen- 
eral amnesty was now proclaimed, (excluding a few of the 
most active and obnoxious leaders of the rebellion) on con- 
dition, that the people would deliver up their arms, and take 
the oath of allegiance to the king and government; a pro- 
posal almost universally accepted; and the country was at 
length in peace. 

In the parish of Carnmoney, in which my family resided, 
and where the manufacturing business is still extensively 
carried on by the senior members, I never knew a man, born 
within its precincts, who was not a United Irishman, and, 
moreover, of the Protestant religion, almost wholly Presby- 
terians; and, some idea may be formed of the universality 
of the spirit of opposition to the late administration, when it 
is known, that, in that single parish, not less than seven 
hundred persons, of adult age, took the oath of allegiance, 
before a magistrate, in the Presbyterian meeting-house. 



PART VI. 

Great excitement in Belfast, on account of the cannon of the Blues — Arrest 
of their commander — Newell the informer, takes the portraits of the 
United Irishmen — Is drowned at Larne — Another informer drowned 
in Cromach Creek, and one shot, in Belfast — Joseph Kelsey joins the 
Orangemen — Insults a young girl, and is killed — McKclvey assassi- 
nated, on his return from the assizes — Conviction of William Kane, 
and his wonderful escape from prison. 

When tranquillity had been for some time restored, the 
peace of the community was again threatened, by an unex- 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 33 

pected demand, made by the royal general. The several 
pieces of artillery, attached to the volunteer corps, in Belfast 
and the neighbourhood, had all been given up to the officers 
of the government, or seized by their authority, except two 
brass six-pounders, belonging to the " Blues." A procla- 
mation was issued, by the general, declaring, that " no peace 
was to be expected, in the town and its vicinity, until those 
cannon were delivered at the barracks. A meeting of the 
inhabitants was called, by influential individuals, desirous of 
restoring perfect harmony to the distracted community; and, 
when convened, an earnest request was made, that the per- 
sons who had the custody of the cannon, would comply with 
the requisition. Every person present declared his igno- 
rance of the place of their concealment; and, at the same 
time, expressed a desire, that some measure might be adopt- 
ed, to obtain them. At length, it was arranged, that my fa- 
ther's large English cart, drawn by a horse of unusual power, 
and conducted by a faithful and intelligent driver, should be 
stationed at the Exchange, at twelve o'clock, on the follow- 
ing night, and await the arrival of the person or persons who 
should accompany the vehicle to the place where the dread- 
ed ordnance were concealed. A pass, signed by the general, 
was given to the driver, to save him from being stopped by 
the sentinels and patroles ; and, at the appointed rendezvous, 
he accordingly waited, until the dawn of morning warned 
him that the voice of the inhabitants had been, thus far, raised 
in vain. 

The excitement, caused by this disappointment, in the 
breasts of the military, was alarming; and it was feared that 
the soldiers would again be turned loose upon the people, in 
order to coerce the guardians of the much coveted artillery, 
to obey the call; when, to the satisfaction of all, notice was 
given to the general, that they were concealed in the cow- 
house of Mr. George Warnock, a brewer, who resided in 
North Street, directly opposite the mansion of Mr. Getty; 
and lo ! sure enough, there, were the two pieces found! 

Some time previously to this affair, the extensive ware- 
house of Mr. Getty, considered one of the very firmest erec- 
tions in the borough, to the amazement of its owner and all 
who witnessed the fact, was discovered to be considerably 
cracked, in one of its end walls ; and the secret now trans- 
pired, that his principal book-keeper, Mr. Nicholas Peers, a 



34 INCIDENTS RECALLED, 

member of the Blue Company, aided by a few trusty friends, 
some months before, had conveyed the artillery from the 
shed in the Brown Linen Hall, adjoining the back yard of the 
ware-house, through a gate which communicated between 
them ; and, having dug a hole in the interior of the building, 
rather near the wall, and partly under the foundation, and 
there deposited the cannon, the solid fabric of the structure 
had thus been shaken and endangered. 

Shortly after this incident, Mr. Getty was arrested, by 
General Barber, of the artillery corps, and imprisoned in the 
hotel of the Donegall Arms — then converted into a " provost" 
—in the room recently vacated by his brother-in-law, Dr. 
White, who was constrained to expatriate himself to the 
United States ; but, after a confinement of only two weeks, 
nothing specific appearing against him, he was discharged. 
Mr. Getty, although well acquainted with most of the plans 
and movements of the United Irish Society, had never been 
"sworn in," as a member; nor had my father; because they 
both judged, and perhaps rightly, that it was not only unne- 
cessary, but inexpedient and dangerous, to permit the mass 
of the people to become acquainted with the designs and 
names of the several leaders, and thus subject them to be 
betrayed by every unprincipled fellow, who might, by bri- 
bery, be induced to swear away their lives. 

Treachery, however, at that time, was not confined to the 
lower classes. The very first person that I recollect giving 
information, to the government, against individuals of that 
society, was named Newell; a resident of the city of Dub- 
lin, and a miniature painter, of some eminence. This man 
had been specially employed, by the officers of government, 
to insinuate himself into the society, for the express purpose 
of betraying them. Some time previously to the arrests 
which took place in Belfast, Newell came to the town, with 
letters of introduction from the capital, and, having been ini- 
tiated into the society of United Irishmen, affected to be so 
highly pleased with several of its influential members, that 
he requested the favour of taking their likenesses; which, 
having been freely given, he transmitted them to his em- 
ployers ; and thus enabled the government not only to watch 
the movements of the gentlemen portrayed, but to identify 
them, when they desired to have them arrested ; and the 
traitor even went so far, as to return to Belfast, in disguise, 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 35 

and, with a black silk handkerchief drawn over his face, to 
designate his victims. 

The fate of Newell was similar to that of nearly every in- 
dividual who had turned traitor to the patriotic cause. After 
having been used, as a witness, to convict several members 
of the society, he endeavoured to escape to the United States, 
on board an American vessel, then on the point of sailing 
from Lame, a sea-port in the county of Antrim, opposite to 
the Scotch coast, about seventeen miles from Belfast; where 
he was way-laid, and when he had gone about half-way to 
the ship, was drowned in the surf, by the intentional upset- 
ting of the boat. 

Another informer, whose name I cannot now recall to my 
recollection, was induced, one night, to take a walk in the 
neighbourhood of Joy's Dam, on the outskirts of Belfast; 
and, when crossing a narrow wooden bridge, over Cromach 
Creek, was popped into the stream, so heavily laden with 
clock-weights, which had been slipped into his pocket, that 
his knowledge of the art of swimming became entirely use- 
less. Another man, named McCan, who had worked as a 
mule-spinner at Whitehouse, was shot dead, in North Street, 
while the sun was yet above the horizon ; and the perpe- 
trators of the deed were never known to the government; 
and a fellow named O'Brien, after having aided in consign- 
ing to an untimely death, several of his confederates, was 
launched into eternity from the platform at Newgate, in the 
city of Dublin, two years after the termination of the rebel- 
lion, for a deliberate and cruel murder, perpetrated by him, 
during the previous existence of martial law. 

Two cases occurred, in my own neighbourhood, about a 
year after the country became tranquil, which more vividly 
recur to my recollection. One of these recals the name of 
Kelsey; the other, of McKelvey The former was a ne- 
phew and heir of a wealthy and highly respectable farmer, 
named Russel; who resided about a mile from Whitehouse, 
at the base of the Cave Hill, on what is called the Antrim 
Road, at a place called Collinward. After his return from 
the United States, where he had sojourned for some years, 
and seemed to have imbibed the principles of republicanism, 
he became an inmate in his uncle's house, and entered with 
apparent, and probably sincere zeal, into the design which 
then so deeply engrossed the attention of his neighbours. 



36 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

The rebellion, however, having proved a failure, Mr. Kelsey 
seems to have become alarmed, lest he might be subjected to 
some inconvenience, and perhaps heavy loss, in the event of 
his being included in the number of the proscribed ; and an 
Orange Lodge — a raru avis in that Presbyterian vicinity — 
having been organized, by some of the least estimable of the 
community, the young farmer became a member, and also 
an officer in the society ; honoured by the distinction of car- 
rying a huge Bible in one hand, and a sword in the other. 
A grand meeting of the fraternity having been summoned to 
assemble in Belfast, the society of Carnmoney — about thirty 
in number — with Mr. Kelsey at their head, were observed 
descending the avenue which passed through my father's 
land, and presently approached our gate, where several of 
our family, including myself, were then standing. To a re- 
mark made by me, indicative of the change which had oc- 
curred in the sentiments of Kelsey, that " a pike would be- 
come him better than that sword and Bible," he replied, with 
some asperity; and the words had scarcely been uttered, 
when my brother Nicholas, who, in order to enable him to 
protect the people of the country against the insults of the 
military and orangemen, had recently become a member of 
the Belfast Troop, was seen to mount his horse, a powerful 
young animal, of great spirit, which immediately, by the ap- 
plication of the spur, reared upon his hinder feet, using his 
fore paws in a most alarming manner, and actually pas- 
saging in such a way, along the line, as to strike nearly 
every one of the thirty renegades with his well-shod hoofs. 
A loud huzza burst forth from more than a hundred men, 
women, and children, assembled in the road, and continued, 
until the ringing of the bell, which summoned them to a re- 
newal of their labours ; and, order having, at length, been 
restored in the scattered ranks, the corps proceeded on their 
destined way. On their return, they were assailed with 
stones, thrown from the back of a high hedge, by some mis- 
chievous lads, myself amongst the number, were again com- 
pletely scattered, and, turning suddenly round, pursued us to 
the adjacent stables, the doors of which we instantly secured; 
exhibiting, at the same time, several pitchforks at the win- 
dows. Soon, the men came running from the different 
places of employment; and it required the utmost influence 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 37 

of my elder brothers, to prevent them from seizing upon our 
arms, and pursuing the miscreants in their retreat. 

My brother did not escape with entire impunity, for this 
apparently accidental, but really premeditated assault upon 
the orange party. On his arrival in Belfast, he was arrested, 
a court of inquiry was convened at the barracks, for the pur- 
pose of investigating this singular "outrage;" and, only that 
one of the stable-boys testified, (and that truly too,) that my 
brother's horse was, at times, extremely restive and unma- 
nageable, the young dragoon would not have escaped being 
brought before a court-martial, and perhaps dismissed his 
corps. 

That was not the last act in the drama of Joe Kelsey's 
public life. One evening, when attending a meeting of his 
"lodge," in a public house adjacent to the Presbyterian 
meeting-house, he had occasion to open the door of the room 
in which they were assembled ; and, finding a young woman, 
apparently in the act of listening at the door, in the most 
cruel and dastardly manner, he struck her with the butt of 
his pistol, and knocked out several of her teeth. This out- 
rage seemed, at the time, to have passed unresented ; but it 
was not unnoticed, or unrevenged. Ere the night had told 
the hour of twelve, the unmanly traitor was put out of the 
way of any longer insulting his fellow-citizens, of either sex. 
On his returning home, having reached the avenue which led 
to his uncle's house, he was assailed — it was supposed — by 
a lover of the girl he had so brutally assaulted ; and, in the 
morning, his body was found stretched in the road, with a 
stone, sufficiently large to have caused the fracture in his 
skull, lying, with its blood-stained marks, significantly by his 
side. 

Shortly afterwards, the assassination of McKelvey occurred. 
Returning from Carrickfergus, the county town, where the 
assizes were then sitting, after giving evidence against a per- 
son charged with some political offence, he had stopped at a 
public house, on the shore road; and, when nearly dark, as 
he was proceeding on his way home, by the same road on 
which Kelsey had met his fate, and not half a mile distant 
from the spot, an unknown person joined him, and con- 
tinued to walk by his side, along my father's plantation, be- 
tween him and the hedge; when another person jumped 
over the fence, and, after keeping them company, for a short 

4* 



38 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

time, reached across his former companion, and, with his 
left hand, cut him across the stomach, and inflicted a mortal 
wound, four inches and a half in length, and about an inch 
in depth. The breath issued from the wound, and the un- 
fortunate man could swallow neither meat nor drink. My 
father (who was not then a justice of the peace,) sent me 
into Belfast, for a magistrate, in order to take McKelvey's de- 
position, and I returned in company with Mr. Andrews ; 
who, in presence of my father and myself, and a few others, 
recorded the man's dying words ; by which, he charged a 
person named Mcllnea, a blacksmith, who resided a short 
distance from the tragical occurrence, with being the perpe- 
trator of the murder, by means of a " buttredge." Mcllnea 
absconded, a reward was offered for his apprehension, but, 
returning incautiously, one night, on a visit to his family, 
his house was surrounded by a party of military, and, as he 
was endeavouring to escape from a back window, the ser- 
geant of the party placed his halberd across the aperture, and 
Mcllnea being captured, was tried at the next assizes, for the 
alleged murder, found guilty and executed ; having asserted 
his innocence to my father, in the jail. 

One of the prisoners, confined by the general, for his par- 
ticipation in the movements of the United Irish Society, and 
particularly his having been amongst the rebels in the battle 
of Antrim, was named William Kane. I had seen him, the 
evening before that affair, in the neighbourhood of our resi- 
dence, in company with Henry McCracken, and several 
others. They spent the night in Captain Campbell's barn, 
and, early in the morning, proceeded to the scene of action. 
Kane had been tried, by court-martial, at the Exchange, in 
Belfast, and having been condemned to death, was remanded 
to the provost, in order to be taken to execution, the follow- 
ing day. The prisoner, however, by an adroit contrivance, 
effected his escape. Pretending to be a Roman Catholic, he 
was allowed the attendance of a priest; and, requesting to 
be left alone, with a friend, who assumed that character, he 
prevailed upon the sentinel, who was really of the Catholic 
religion, to withdraw from the interior of the chamber in 
which he was confined, and take his station outside of the 
door. Meanwhile, Mr. Kane's sister — then, a girl of only 
about sixteen — known afterwards in Philadelphia, as the 
highly respected lady, (Mrs. Bradshaw,) who, for many 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 39 

years, kept the hotel opposite the State-house, called the 
Democratic Head Quarters, supplied the guards, and even 
the sentinel himself, with a liberal potation ; the pretended 
clergyman issued quickly from the room, and Kane, with 
still greater agility, leaped from the window, down upon a 
shed, in the yard of the hotel. Proceeding along the roof, 
his faithful sister appeared near the extremity of the yard, 
with a ladder; and, retreating a short distance from the wall, 
by means of signals made with her hands, succeeded in di- 
recting her brother to the top of the ladder; down which, 
he safely descended into the yard. But the danger of re- 
capture soon became imminent. On re-entering the chamber, 
and, discovering the escape of his prisoner, the sentinel also 
leaped out of the same window, down upon the roof of the 
shed, and, in the darkness of the night, pursued the fugitive, 
but with much less speed; for, being unacquainted with the 
situation of the sky-lights, his' feet, and the greater part of his 
body, frequently found their way through the glass, at the 
no little peril of his neck; moreover, having to pass through 
the entry of a house, which intervened between the yard and 
the street, Kane, to his utter astonishment, beheld a servant, 
in the act of cleaning an officer's regimental coat; his mas- 
ter, at that instant, being in an adjoining room. Pushing 
on, however, he cleared the hall, without detention, and suc- 
ceeded in reaching a stable, in an adjacent street; and, 
ascending to the loft, crept into a heap of hay. During his 
concealment, he heard the galloping of dragoons, in pursuit 
of him, and the marshal offering a large reward for his ap- 
prehension; and, at length, a number of soldiers found their 
way into the loft, and the sergeant of the party, in probing 
for the fugitive, passed his sabre within half an inch of his 
leg. Nearly suffocated for want of air, when all appeared 
quiet, and the search, for a time, abandoned, Kane crept from 
his place of confinement, and, with a dread of recapture, not 
easily described, made his way to his mother's house. He 
was speedily dressed in a woman's cap and night-gown, and 
put to bed, personating a matron, a few days "confined;" 
while his sister, hearing a knock at the outer door, followed 
by rapid tramping on the stair-case, with admirable presence 
of mind, enveloped herself in the habiliments of a nurse, sat 
down by the fire, and, bending low, at the same time rock- 
ing herself backwards and forwards with a " hush-a-by," 



40 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

caused the sergeant to suppose that she was nursing a newly- 
born baby ; and, with that delicacy and tenderness, charac- 
teristic of the gallant soldier, he shortly withdrew from the 
room. 

Not considering himself secure in his mother's house, on 
the following night, arrangements having been previously 
made with the master of an American vessel, about to sail 
for Philadelphia, Kane made his way into the sewer, which 
runs under nearly the entire length of High Street, to the 
Quay, and thence to a boat, which waited for him at the 
place of its confluence with the river ; was carried on board 
the ship, and, after a series of hair-breadth escapes, equalling 
almost any thing in romance, was landed safely at her des- 
tined port. 



PART VII. 

White Linen Hall, in Belfast, set on fire by the Lancashire Dragoons- 
Fire engine from Whitehouse arrests the flames — Coup de grace 
given, by the author, to the Belfast engine — Heads on pikes — Henry 
McCracken — His execution — His sister's endeavour to restore him to 
life — Their museum of the martyrs' clothes. 

Shortly after the commencement of the rebellion, a vast 
number of additional regiments were sent over into Ireland, 
by the British Government, principally a species of troops, 
both cavalry and infantry, called Fencibles, whose services 
were limited to the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and 
Ireland, and the principality of Wales. With few excep- 
tions, their conduct won for them the esteem and gratitude 
of nearly all with whom they were associated; being fre- 
quently billeted upon the inhabitants, especially upon those 
suspected to be disaffected to the government; by whom, 
they were considered as a protection, rather than as an in- 
cumbrance. 

The men, with their families, of one of these regiments, 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 41 

called the Lancashire Dragoons, were quartered in the White 
Linen Hall, in Belfast; a spacious building, forming a regu- 
lar two-story quadrangle, situated near the termination of the 
street, then called Linen Hall Street, but subsequently Done- 
gall Place. The rooms being without chimneys, and the 
winter rather severe, the men became greatly dissatisfied, 
and a fire having broken out in this temporary barrack, it was 
attributed to the incendiary act of the inmates. Whitehouse 
being about four miles from the town, we distinctly saw the 
commencement of the fire, about eleven o'clock one night, 
just as we were on the eve of retiring to bed. The large 
fire-engine belonging to our factories, was immediately drawn 
out, and a couple of active horses having been attached, one 
of my brothers and myself accompanied it to the place of the 
conflagration ; knowing that the extensive and wealthy town 
of Belfast (unusually remiss, in this particular,) did not boast 
of an engine that was of the smallest use. On our way, we 
were several times brought to a halt by military patroles, and 
ran considerable risk; being abruptly stopped by the soldiers, 
supposing that we were dragging in a piece of ordnance, with 
the intention, perhaps, of aiding in an attack upon the garri- 
son. We, at length, however, reached the building; and, 
surely, a greater scene of confusion seldom was presented. 
Not a single inhabitant of the town, except the Sovereign, 
was present; but the yard was crowded with bedding, and 
various other articles of furniture ; on which, reclined the 
wives and children of the dragoons, and also the dragoons 
themselves, seeming perfectly indifferent to the progress of 
the fire. Two pieces of cannon were planted opposite the 
northern front, with the design of severing it, by breaches, in 
the event of the fire extending so far; that portion of the 
building then containing a large quantity of linen cloth, de- 
posited there, for sale, by the factors. When we reached 
the front gate, so terrific was the blaze, our leading horse 
fell prostrate in the passage, and could not be induced to pro- 
ceed an inch ; which constrained us to unharness them both, 
and back the engine into the street. But, to have entered 
the area of the square, would have been useless. There was 
no water to be had, except from a single pump, at the exte- 
rior of the western side; and thither, with the aid of about a 
dozen of the Monaghan Militia, we dragged the engine, and, 
having filled it, dragged it again to the fire ; and, having emp- 



42 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

tied it, hauled it back to the pump; and this was the opera- 
tion, during seven hours, occupied in its extinguishment. 
The entire range in which the fire originated, was consumed, 
and about a fourth of the western side ; and, doubtless, the 
whole would have been destroyed, had it not been for our 
assistance. Some danger attended the approach to the burn- 
ing chambers; in which, were suspended, not only sabres, 
but pistols and carbines; which, having become red-hot, from 
the surrounding blaze, at intervals discharged their contents, 
down through the floors, right over our heads. 

The fire having, at length, been overcome, we prepared to 
depart; but, ere we returned, I thought we would place the 
borough of Belfast under an additional obligation. Seeing 
their antiquated and inefficient engine standing near one of 
the walls, I prevailed upon the soldiers to drag it close under 
the eve-course, and then directed one of their number to 
ascend to the top, and throw down upon it one of the mas- 
sive cope-stones, that crowned the parapet; which he per- 
formed so effectually — the stone passing right through the 
old wooden condenser, in the centre — that it never again 
made its appearance at a fire, to disappoint the inhabitants ; 
the corporation, soon afterwards, followed my father's exam- 
ple, and brought, from London, a pair of engines that would, 
to a certainty, perform their duty. 

I recollect seeing, attached to the points of pikes, and 
placed at the summit of the old market-house in Belfast, the 
heads of three persons, who had been executed for the part 
taken by them in the rebellion ; also, in Lisburn, the head of 
Henry Munro, one of the commanders in the battle of Bal- 
linahinch, and of some others ; and also several more heads, 
in the town of Carlin, many years afterwards; a most dis- 
tressing spectacle. 

Henry McCracken, a person connected with several respect- 
able families in Belfast, having been convicted of being a leader 
in the battle of Antrim, suffered the penalty of the law, or rather 
only a part of the penalty ; his sisters, favoured by the Judge 
Advocate of the court-martial, having prevailed upon the au- 
thorities to obtain his body, without decapitation. Imme- 
diately after it was cut down, it was conveyed to their house, 
not far distant, where means were used to resuscitate it; but 
without effect. Those ladies indulged in rather a singular 
penchant, in the way of patriotic relics; having laid by, in a 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 43 

closet appurtenant to their bed-chamber, not only the habili- 
ments in which their brother had perished on the scaffold; 
but those also of many others, who had shared a similar 
fate. 

Soon after the pacification of the country, by the judicious 
and humane measures of the Marquis Cornwallis, that noble- 
man honoured the town of Belfast with a visit. A dinner 
having been given, on his account, at the Exchange, he ex- 
pressed himself so much pleased with the gentlemen, that he 
became desirous also of meeting the ladies ; and a ball was,* 
in consequence, arranged; to which, the marquis was spe- 
cially invited. ' 1 remember accompanying some of our fa- 
mily to this splendid fete; and, had an opportunity of in- 
dulging my curiosity, by a near view of that celebrated 
nobleman, during the greater part of the night. He stood, 
during a considerable time, on one of the large hearths in the 
ball-room, it being in the winter season, and I placed myself 
very near him, and was gratified by a long-continued and 
critical view of his venerable and majestic person. In sta- 
ture, he appeared above six feet, and proportionably large, 
greatly resembling, in dignity and size, the full-length por- 
trait of General Washington; whom he had severe cause to 
recollect. I am now impressed with the idea, however, that 
he had lost his left eye. He wore a star upon his left breast, 
and a garter, upon his left leg; being a knight of the ancient 
order of that name. There stood near him, one of his aids- 
de-camp, Colonel Gardner; of whom, I heard, about that 
time, a very whimsical anecdote. Attached to the army of 
the Duke of York, when his royal "highness commanded the 
British fortes in the Netherlands, the troops having readied 
the ships, after an unsuccessful attempt upon Dunkirk, the 
colonel was missing; and a party of horse having been sent 
back, to search for him, to their amazement, they discovered 
him tranquilly seated under a spreading tree, while his valet 
de chambre was putting his hair in order, with pomatum and 
powder, to enable him to meet his comrades, after the rapid 
retreat, in what he deemed a becoming dress. 



44 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 



PART VIII. 

The author is sent to Dublin — Danger of travelling in the mail-coach — 
Is escorted by Enniskillen Dragoons — Legislative union with Great 
Britain — His father is summoned to the house of commons — The 
author enters the body of the house, through mistake — Description of 
members — The speaker — Lord Castlereagh — Mr. Isaac Corry — Henry 
Grattan — His duel with Mr. Corry — Sir Neil O'Donnell — Description 
of the house, and of the house of lords — Union Bill passed — Protect- 
ing duties retained until 1824 — Impolicy of protection — The lord- 
lieutenant going to parliament, in state — Battle-axe guards, or beef- 
eaters — The lord-chancellor and lord-mayor — Failure of the crops — 
Liberality of Lord Cornwallis. 

Having entered upon my eighteenth year, a new era 
opened in my career of life. It was determined that I should 
proceed to Dublin, where my family had recently opened a 
house, for the sale of their manufactured goods, to assist in 
making sales, and also to conduct the correspondence with 
my brother. I set out from Belfast on the morning of the 
second of April, 1800, in the royal mail-coach; and, having 
proceeded as far as Newry, we there stopped for the night; 
it being highly dangerous, at that period, when the country 
was infested with marauding parties, the debris of the late 
rebellion, to travel south of that town, in the night. The 
next morning, in addition to the ordinary guard of two reso- 
lute men, armed each with a blunderbuss and case of pistols, 
and dressed in the royal uniform of scarlet and blue, we 
found ourselves escorted by two of the Enniskillen Dragoon 
Guards, in scarlet and buff; and, without any molestation 
from highwaymen, reached the capital, distant eighty Irish, 
or about one hundred English miles from Belfast, before 
dark; and I proceeded to our house, situated on Lower Or- 
mond Quay. 

Shortly afterwards, my father arrived in the city; having 
been summoned, together with a few others of the principal 
manufacturers, to give his opinion, at the bar of the House 



INCIDENTS 'RECALLED 45 

of Commons, as to the effect of the contemplated union with 
Great Britain, upon their business, by the legislative conso- 
lidation of the three kingdoms, and the removal of the pro- 
tecting duties. I was thus afforded a most convenient op- 
portunity of procuring admission into the gallery of the 
House, and hearing the debates. The first visit made by me 
to the parliament-house, was attended by a little mistake, on 
my part, in finding my way to the gallery. Having left my 
father, in conversation with some of the members, in a com- 
mittee-room, directly opposite the door of the House, I 
proceeded, with the natural curiosity of youth, to reach the 
gallery; but, instead of turning to the right, and ascending a 
stair-case, leading to that part of the house, which was con- 
cealed by a painted door, I pushed open a large door, co- 
vered with green cloth, and, in an instant, reached the mace, 
which rested on brackets, on a table, in front of the speaker's 
chair; the door, in the mean time, having closed, by the ac- 
tion of a spring. Fortunately for me, the house was not 
yet in session ; for, I had not time to turn round, in order to 
make a hasty retreat, when one of the officers tapped me on 
the shoulder, and asked was I a member ! I, of course, re- 
plied, that I wished to reach the gallery, and he very politely 
escorted me to the door, when I made my escape; my father, 
and the gentlemen sitting with him, at the same time laughing 
heartily, as I emerged, evincing some small degree of alarm. 

Having, with great difficulty, procured a seat in the gal- 
lery, I chanced to be placed very near the wife of the Bishop 
of Down and Connor, Mrs. Dickson, and her beautiful daugh- 
ter; the elder lady succeeding better than myself, or any 
other person in our neighbourhood, in averting the inconve- 
nient pressure of the crowd. I was not long in the gallery, 
before I was squeezed completely off my seat, and deposited 
upon the surbase of the apartment, leaning with my breast, 
upon the powdered heads of the gentlemen in front. 

The speaker, the Right Honourable John Foster, arrayed 
in his robes and wig, about five o'clock in the afternoon, took 
his seat; and the debate began. I well remember the tall 
and graceful figure of Lord Viscount Castlereagh (eldest son 
of the Earl, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry,) who spoke 
from the end of the Treasury Bench, at the right hand of the 
speaker's chair. In voice and manner, Mr. Clay, when I 
heard him, many vears ago, in a convention, of which I was 
5 



46 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

a member, at Washington, reminded me of that celebrated 
nobleman ; his hands clasped in front of his breast, and his 
voice deep, full, and sonorous. I must, here, however, re- 
mark, that I have never heard either of these orators, when 
under any excitement. I also heard Mr. Isaac Corry, chan- 
cellor of the exchequer; a handsome, well-made man, of 
middle size ; more celebrated for the duel he fought with 
Henry Grattan, than for any extraordinary talent. I had the 
good fortune to hear, also, Mr. Grattan himself; whose man- 
ner was, in the highest degree, animated. He spoke with a 
cane in his right hand ; wheeling partly round, at regular in- 
tervals, on his heel. Mr. Grattan had a full-toned, manly - 
voice, was of middle size, and well-built, of a fair, or rather 
florid complexion, with a prominent aquiline nose, and blue 
eyes. He wore his hair powdered, was always dressed 
with great neatness, in a blue coat, and yellow buttons ; and, 
when they were fashionable, leather small-clothes, and top- 
boots. The speaker, also, addressed the House, when in 
committee; also, Sir Neil O'Donnell, Mr. Dobbs, of Carrick- 
fergus, and many others, whose names, I do not remember. 

The Chamber of the Irish House of Commons, was cir- 
cular, furnished with plain benches, without backs, rising 
gradually from the speaker's chair; and neither desk, nor 
pen, nor arm-chair, was to be seen, for the accommodation 
of any member. The speaker's chair was opposite the gal- 
lery, and advanced a few feet from the periphery. I have 
never been in the House of Lords; but I know it was a 
handsome, oblong chamber, hung with Gobelin Tapestry, 
representing the Battle of the Boyne, and other historical 
subjects. The Parliament House, a splendid building, of 
Portland stone, of the Corinthian order, situated in College 
Green, shortly after the Union, which took effect on the first 
day of January, 1801, was purchased by the Bank of Ireland, 
for twenty thousand pounds; and, with suitable alterations, 
now presents one of the most splendid money establishments 
in the world. 

I have already spoken of the " protecting duties," imposed 
on the importation of cotton fabrics, imported into Ireland. 
By the Articles of Union, as originally proposed in the Irish 
Parliament, these duties would have been entirely stricken 
off, on the first day of January next ensuing; a measure, 
which, after the long indulgence enjoyed by the Irish manii; 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 47 

facturers, would have ruined them all, at a single blow. To 
prevent this calamity, petitions were presented to the House 
of Commons ; and my father, and a few others, as I have 
already stated, were summoned to the bar of the house, to 
give evidence, as to the effect of their cessation. My father 
had frequent interviews with the Marquis Cornwallis, and 
others high in the administration, on this important subject, 
his recommendation — though of an interested character, it 
must be confessed — was adopted, and the result was, the ar- 
ranging of a scale of duties, continued for eight years, as be- 
fore the Union, and, at the end of that period, a gradual 
diminution, until 1824; when the duties were entirely re- 
moved. Then, it was, that the Irish manufacturers, before 
pampered and spoiled by over-indulgence, were forced to 
exert themselves ; and, Ireland, which, previously, had never 
been able to export a single yard of either calico or muslin, 
or a single pound of cotton yarn, actually turned the tables 
against their former competitors, by increasing her business 
more than five-fold, and exported largely to the English 
market. Scotland, equally poor as Ireland, being under the 
same legislature as England, never had enjoyed any protec- 
tion ; and, it was happy for her that she had not ; as, from 
the very first dawning of the cotton manufacture in Great 
Britain, she not only went on pari passu — step by step — 
with her more powerful sister, but very soon appropriated to 
herself an entire branch of the cotton manufacture — the fine 
cambric and fancy muslin fabrics — in which, England never 
was able to compete with her. 

It was a splendid spectacle, to see the lord-lieutenant pro- 
ceeding, in state, to open the Irish Parliament; the same ar- 
rangements being observed, as when the king opened the 
parliament in England. Seated in the state-coach, a guilded 
and elaborately carved vehicle, with glass pannels and lofty 
columns to support the roof, drawn by eight horses, gorgeous- 
ly caparisoned, and decked with the royal parti-colours, 
orange, purple, and blue, the cumbrous carriage moved so- 
lemnly along, from the castle to the parliament-house, be- 
tween two rows of infantry, stationed, one at each side of 
the street, upon the curb-stone, with presented arms; the 
band imparting some animation to the scene, by occasional 
airs, of national or loyal import. But, not the least interest- 
ing or curious part of the procession, was, the corps of bat- 



48 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

tle-axe guards, known, incommon parlance, as the beef-eaters, 
from the supposed idle life spent by them, during the long 
intervals between these ancient pageantries. Dressed with 
velvet caps, with capacious brims, tunics descending to the 
knee, scarlet hose, and shoes with massive buckles, carrying 
each a battle-axe, extended in his right hand, they reminded 
the spectators of the picturesque dramas of Richard, and 
other historical representations of Shakspeare, on the Brit- 
ish stage. It would be unfair, however, to impress the 
reader with an idea, that all the members of the battle-axe 
guards, passed the chief part of their time in dreamy idle- 
ness ; the majority of those who appeared in such proces- 
sions, being evidently soldiers, specially employed for the 
occasion. 

The lord-chancellor, also, and the lord-mayor of Dublin, 
have their state-coaches, used at certain times; such as the 
installation of the viceroy, or lord-lieutenant, the opening of 
the Four Courts, by the former, accompanied by all the 
judges, and the opening of the Oyer and Terminer and Quar- 
ter Sessions by the latter, accompanied by the recorder and 
the sheriffs. 

Though the viceroy, Lord Cornwallis, in all matters of 
public ceremony, conformed to the usual pageantry of esta- 
blished monarchies, yet, in his domestic relations, no man 
lived in a more simple and frugal manner; often, sitting 
down, even by himself, to make a brief repast ofF a cold 
joint and salad, and then hastening to the despatch of busi- 
ness, with persons waiting in the ante-chamber. 

During two years of the residence of Lord Cornwallis, in 
the city of Dublin, in 1799 and 1800, there occurred through- 
out the kingdom, a scarcity of provisions, which pressed se- 
verely upon a portion of the poor; though business, of 
every kind, being then prosperous, and employment abun- 
dant, the pressure fell chiefly upon those, who were either 
unable to work, or, by a long course of vagrancy and idle- 
ness, had become unfitted to earn their bread. In these 
seasons of distress, no individual was more liberal, in the 
distribution of his charities, than the marquis; having, during 
a whole year, placed, in the hands of a respectable citizen, 
out of his own purse, the sum of fifty pounds per week, for 
distribution amongst the destitute, besides planting not less 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 49 

than twenty acres of potatoes, for their support, at his own 
expense, in the Phoenix Park. 



PART IX. 

The lord-mayor, sheriffs, aldermen, and common council of the city of 
Dublin — Manner of their election — Freemen of the several Guilds — 
Government of the city principally in the hands of the mechanics — 
Sir William Worthington — His marriage with the two widows — 
Dublin society — Botanic garden — General Valiancy — Theatres of 
Dublin — Eminent performers — Frederick Jones and the Dog of Mon- 
targis — Riot at the Crow Street Theatre, and entire destruction of the 
interior — Dibden and Belzoni — Eminent lawyers — Curran — McNally, 
O'Connell, Bushe, Barrington, Saurin, Ponsonby, Plunket, Ball, and 
Joy — Lords Clare, Redesdale, and Manners — Description of their 
persons. 

Having spoken of the lord-mayor and sheriffs of the city 
of Dublin, it may be well, in this place, to say something of 
the manner of their election, and the class of citizens from 
whom they are usually chosen ; as an impression prevails, 
in the United States, that those officers must necessarily be 
of aristocratic rank ; whereas, the very contrary is the fact, 
in the Irish, as well as the English capital. 

In the first place, I shall endeavour to define, what is meant 
by a freeman, in those ancient cities ; as, upon this peculiar 
kind of citizens, is based the entire fabric of the municipal 
government. A freeman, then, is a person of twenty-one 
years of age, (at that period, a Protestant,) who may enjoy 
the civic privileges in five different modes — by birth, servi- 
tude, marriage, grace-especial, or purchase. The son of a 
freeman is free ; or one who has married the daughter of a 
freeman ; or has served a certain apprenticeship to him ; also, 
a person, generally a distinguished stranger, to whom his free- 
dom has been presented ; or one, a resident of good moral 
character, who is permitted to enjoy it, for a certain price. 

5* 



50 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

When, or in what manner, the first freemen became entitled 
to the privilege, I know not; that fact being lost in the ob» 
scurity of time ; and we must, therefore, rest satisfied with 
knowing, how a person may now be denominated free. In 
the election of members of parliament, a freeman enjoys the 
same privilege as a freeholder. 

At the period to which I have referred, the freemen of the 
city were embraced within twenty-five guilds, or trades, re- 
presented, in the common-council, chosen for three years, by 
ninety-six freemen. The guild of merchants was represented 
by thirty-one members ; the tailors and smiths, three ; bakers, 
shoemakers, goldsmiths, and brewers, by each four; the 
butchers, carpenters, saddlers, weavers, each three ; the cut- 
lers, painters, stainers, and stationers, combined, three; the 
barbers, cooks, tanners, tallow-chandlers, gluers and skinners, 
united, shearmen and dyers, united, coopers, felt-makers, 
bricklayers, hosiers, curriers, joiners, and apothecaries, each 
two. Each of these guilds had a little parliament-house, in 
which, like the fire companies of Philadelphia, they assem- 
bled, for the transaction of their civic duties. The common 
council annually elected the sheriffs — two in number — either 
out of their own body, or the body of freemen : the board of 
aldermen, twenty-four in number, elected for life, correspond- 
ing, in dignity, with the select council of Philadelphia, were 
chosen, whether by seniority or election, I do not now re- 
member, from the " sheriffs' peers," or persons who had 
either served in the office of sheriff, or paid a fine of five 
hundred pounds, for refusing; and the lord-mayor was taken, 
annually, by seniority, from the aldermen. He was himself 
(as well as the lord-mayors of London and York,) addressed, 
during his continuance in office, as " my lord," and his wife, 
as " my lady," and resided in a handsome building, called 
the Mansion House. 

Gentlemen of fortune, unconnected with trade, shipping 
or extensive commission-merchants, rarely, if ever, associate 
themselves with city affairs ; the civic dignitaries being taken, 
almost exclusively, from the mechanical classes, composing 
the respective guilds. When I first went to Dublin, in the 
spring of 1800, the lord-mayor was a plasterer, one of the she- 
riffs a carpenter, and the other a tobacconist; and right well, 
they looked, either when rolling in their splendid carriages, 
or on foot, arrayed in complete court-dress, with bag-wig and 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 51 

sword. At the same time, the lord-mayor of London, Alder- 
man Birch, was a confectioner, or pastry-cook ; and in the 
following year, the office was filled by Alderman Waithman, 
a shop-keeper of Cheapside, who, soon afterwards, had a 
seat in the house of commons. 

Having said something about the aldermen of Dublin, I 
cannot pass over the eccentric Sir William Worthington, one 
of that ancient and honourable body. Sir William had been 
a blacksmith, in his younger days ; in which calling, he had 
amassed a comfortable independence. He cannot, of course, 
be supposed to have been a person of much education, or 
refinement; but, what he was deficient in those qualities, he 
compensated by a plentiful stock of assurance. He was 
married several times ; and indeed, it appears, that it was al- 
most impossible for any lady upon whom he fixed his eyes 
to get quit of him, so great was his perseverance, and so in- 
genious his devices. Having, by the death of his first wife, 
become a candidate for a renewal of the matrimonial state, 
after he had passed the meridian of life, he courted, and, for 
some time, unsuccessfully, a widow, possessed of some pro- 
perty, who resided next door to him, in Thomas Street. 
He was determined, however, not to "give up the ship." 
Accordingly, one Sunday morning, Sir William, having at- 
tired himself in his morning gown, and put his night-cap into 
his pocket, threw open one of the front windows of the se- 
cond story, and was observed leaning out, his night-cap on 
his head, nodding familiarly and gaily to his acquaintances, 
on their way to church; by whom, he was considered as 
the lady's husband, and congratulated, as they passed along, 
with, " Ah ! Sir William, you have got her at last; I wish 
you joy, &c." The poor woman being informed of this 
masterly manoeuvre, to save her character, was constrained 
to yield compliance, and, without further delay, became 
the spouse of the gallant knight. 

Women do not live forever, notwithstanding what has 
been said to the contrary ; and Sir William, when verging 
on four-score, became a candidate, a third time, for the silken 
bands. The lady on whom he now fixed his eye, was not 
only less than half his own age, but was possessed of a very 
handsome person, and, besides two pretty grown-up daugh- 
ters, a sufficient amount of bank stock, to render her inde- 
pendent. She refused him often, and even with disdain, but 



52 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

the alderman again nailed his flag to the mast head, and was 
determined to be victorious. As a last resource, he engaged 
the services of a clergyman, obtained a license, ordered pro- 
vision for a handsome supper, which he packed in a basket, 
with some bottles of choice wine, proceeded, in a carriage, 
to the residence of his ladye-love, on the North Strand; and, 
though again repeatedly rejected, with expressions of aston- 
ishment at his persevering impudence, ere the clock struck 
twelve, the widow became Lady Worthington the Third ! 

During my father's attendance on the house of commons, 
he was elected a member of the Dublin Society, and, by 
that honourable body, appointed to make a geological survey 
of the County of Antrim. This institution was incorporated, 
by charter, in the year 1749, for the purpose of Improving 
Husbandry and the Useful Arts. Enjoying an annual ap- 
propriation, from parliament, of ten thousand pounds, this 
society embraced many of the patriotic nobility and educated 
gentlemen of the kingdom ; the lord-lieutenant being, virlute 
officii, president, and Thomas Burgh, Esq., Morgan Crofton, 
Esq., Right Honourable John Foster, John Leigh, Esq., the 
Duke of Leinster, and General Valiancy, then vice-presi- 
dents. The society, at that time, occupied a spacious build- 
ing in Hawkins' Street, now, I believe, since their removal 
to the splendid and extensive mansion of the Duke of Lein- 
ster, in Merion Square, the site of the Theatre Royal, removed 
from Crow Street. Their gallery and antique casts, cabinet 
of minerals, philosophical apparatus, and botanic garden, 
the last mentioned occupying at least thirty acres, at Glas- 
nevin, near the city, were not, at that period, perhaps sur- 
passed, by any thing, similar in Europe ; and the lectures 
were delivered gratuitously, to all persons engaged in the 
arts, and also to their children. 

Though a native of England, General Valiancy, having 
occasion to visit Ireland professionally, was so struck, when 
landing in the city of Cork, by a supposed similarity between 
the Gaelic, spoken by the southern Irish, and the Hebrew 
language, that he conceived a notion that the two languages 
were congenial. Acting under this impression, he published 
a book, entitled Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, partly with 
a design of proving that assertion; and even went so far, as 
to extract a passage from one of the comedies of Plautus, in 
which is introduced a Carthagenian, speaking the Punic 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 53 

tongue, (a dialect of the Hebrew,) which, by an ingenious 
process of separation, and re-arrangement of letters and syl- 
lables, the general has transmuted into right good Milesian 
Irish; and, so enthusiastic did this amiable man become, in 
relation to Hibernian matters, that he took up his quarters 
daily, in the Library of the institution, and continued his at- 
tendance to the latest period of his existence. 

It is not considered a sin, in Europe, for a communicant 
of the Established Church to visit a theatre, or even to dance 
and play cards : my father, therefore, occasionally indulged 
me in taking me with him to the Theatre Royal. The lead- 
ing attractions, at that time, in the way of" spectacle," were 
the new dramas of Blue Beard and Pizarro ; and a truly tal- 
ented and popular stock-company then performed on the 
Crow Street boards. In the former piece, the chief charac- 
ters were sustained by Mr. Richard Jones, Mr. Williams, 
Mr. Fullam, Mrs. Addison, (afterwards, Mrs. Nun,) and 
Mrs. Creswell ; and in the latter, by Mr. Huddard, and 
George Frederick Cooke, who, at this period, had acquired 
only a small share of that celebrity, subsequently attained by 
him, in London. 

The lessee of the theatre was Mr. Frederick Jones, a very 
aristocratic and unpopular manager. Ten years later than 
this period, a new piece, entitled the "Dog of Montargis," was 
brought forward; and the dog being the principal character, 
some time elapsed, ere Mr. Jones succeeded in finding one, 
in whose just conception of the part, and faithful perform- 
ance, full reliance might be placed. At length, a canine 
histrionic was selected, the property of a trader in Thomas 
Street; who, after the usual quantum of rehearsals, was an- 
nounced to appear in that important part, and, for several 
nights, filled the benches, from the pit to the upper-gallery 
inclusive. Fifty pounds a night, however, was considered, 
by Mr. Jones, as too large a share of the profits, (though the 
house would hold five hundred,) and he demanded a reduc- 
tion. But his master made a firm stand against this breach 
of a solemn contract, and refused to permit the" star any 
longer to illuminate the Crow Street boards : the consequence 
was, the total destruction of the interior decorations of the 
theatre, to the damage of the property, of several thousand 
pounds : the gorgeous pannels of four tiers of boxes, the 
benches, chandeliers, and every thing frangible, were hurled 



54 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

upon the stage ; darkness reigned throughout the once-splen- 
did area, and the theatre was forever closed ! 

During my residence in the city of Dublin, I had an op- 
portunity of seeing nearly all the distinguished theatrical 
performers of that period. The principal of these were, in 
tragedy, Messrs. John Kemble, Young, Holman, and Henry 
Johnson; Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Powell, Miss Smith (after 
wards, Mrs. Bartley) and Miss O'Neil ; in comedy, Messrs 
Munden, Bannister, Charles Lee Lewis, Lewis of the Gold 
finch character, Dowton, Mathews, Jack Johnston, Farren 
Stewart, Emery, Edwin, the elder Dibdin (singly, at a spe 
cies of scnis souci) and the elder Sloman ; Mrs. Jordan, Mrs 
Edwin, Mrs. Hitchcock, and Mrs. H. Johnson : in opera 
Messrs. Incledon, Braham, Kelly, Bellamy, Phillips, T 
Cooke, and Morelli ; Madame Catalani, Madame Dussek 
Mrs. Mountain, Miss Tyrer, and Miss Howell, afterwards 
Mrs. T. Cooke : in pantomime, Messrs. Bradbury, Eller 
and Grimaldi ; and, at the Little Theatre, in Capel Street 
giving an entertainment in hydraulics, on the musical glasses 
and exhibitions of herculean strength, Belzoni, the famous 
traveller in Egypt. Belzoni was then in his twenty-fifth 
year, a well-proportioned, handsome man, in height, about 
six feet three inches, a native of Rome; who carried, with 
apparent ease, not less than eight men, whose aggregate 
weight was fully twelve hundred pounds. 

Grimaldi was not successful on the Dublin boards. The 
story, related by Dickens, in his biography of that celebrated 
comic singer and clown, of his having been driven from the 
Peter Street Amphitheatre by a torrent of rain, which passed 
through the roofs, and deluged the people in. the boxes, to 
such a degree that they were compelled to resort to the 
shelter of umbrellas, is a sheer fabrication; the truth being, 
that a Dublin audience did not relish his peculiar manner, 
which had so delighted the people of Great Britain. 

Of eminent persons, connected with the profession of the 
law, I have seen and heard speak, Messrs. Curran, McNally, 
O'Connell, Bushe, Barrington, Saurin, Ponsonby, Plunket, 
Ball, and Joy ; and lord-chancellors Clare, Redesdale, and 
Manners. Mr. Curran has been faithfully described, in his 
biography, by his son. In appearance, in every respect, he 
differed from his great cotemporary, Henry G rattan. Mr. 
Curran was of a dingy, brown complexion, with black hair, 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 55 

and eyes dark and sparkling; of slender make, rather above 
the middle size, arrayed in a suit of faded black, which 
seemed to fit his spare conformation at no one single point; 
and he generally rode a small horse, of a rusty black, to 
match his coat, looking up to the sky, and his right hand 
keeping time to the regularity of the jog-trot. Sometimes, I 
have seen him going to the Four Courts in an old-fashioned 
chariot, with green pannels ; the horses and driver, and eve- 
ry other appurtenance, in perfect keeping with the habili- 
ments of their distinguished owner. Leonard McNally is 
well known, by the bar of the United States, for his treatise 
upon the Evidence of Criminal Law ; and, at the theatres, 
for his admirable little comedy, " The Poor Soldier;" and, 
as an advocate, in the criminal department of the profession, 
he had no superior in point of knowledge, at the Irish, or 
any other bar. Nature had not been propitious to McNally, 
as regarded his general appearance. He was very clumsily 
made, had a very large head, and sallow, cadaverous com- 
plexion ; and, moreover, the effect, perhaps, of his duel with 
Sir Jonah Barrington, was lame in his right foot; yet he 
possessed a most lustrous eye, of the deepest black, a coun- 
tenance which bespoke the benevolence of his heart, and a 
voice, which, although a high-toned soprano, resembling 
Curran's, was yet clear as a silver bell. He had a son, of 
the same Christian name, an attorney, not in the highest 
practice, but who went regularly on the Home Circuit, in 
order to pick up a little business in the criminal line, at the 
assizes ; and once, when returning to the city, with the spoils 
of his professional tour, he was stopped, on the highway, 
and eased of the contents of his purse. This little misfor- 
tune afforded Curran an opportunity of indulging in a bon 
mot. When, after the termination of the Circuits, the law- 
yers had assembled in the great hall of the Four Courts, 
chatting familiarly, and in their usual good humour, McNally 
turns round to Curran, and says, " Did you hear, Mr. Cur- 
ran, of my Lenny's robbery?" — " No," replied the witty 
barrister, with well feigned astonishment, " My dear fellow, 
whom did he rob?" — McNally himself, also, was not defi- 
cient in readiness of wit. A certain neighbour of his, in 
Harcourt Street, had been greatly annoyed by some young 
scamps, ringing his hall-door bell, after dark, and then run- 
ning away. As a punishment, he directed his servant to 



56 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

keep watch at an upper window ; and, as chance would 
have it, some particular friend of the beleagured gentleman, 
rang at the bell, one evening, being on a passing visit to the 
young ladies of the family; when, down comes a plentiful 
stream of saline fluid, upon his luckless head! Relating this 
occurrence to McNally, the counsellor observed, that " He 
ought not to complain of the reception; for, as he had come 
uninvited, he should be contented to put up with pot-luck. 11 

Bushe, subsequently one of the chief justices, was a hand- 
some, jolly-looking fellow, with an expression indicative of 
his constitutional good humour and talent. O'Connell was 
a tall man, a little above six feet, of a fair, or rather florid 
complexion, light blue eyes, and brown hair, a pleasant Hi- 
bernian expression, combining the qualities of archness and 
good humour, and denoting any thing but the character of a 
demagogue, which he established in a higher degree, than 
any other person, it is probable, at any period of the world. 
He was not remarkable for the graceful contour of his lower 
limbs, nor was he in the least inclined to obesity, in middle 
life. Of his public career, I shall say nothing, in this place. 
Not knowing any thing to the contrary, we must give him 
credit for sincerity of purpose; and, in the present instance, 
be mindful of the maxim, which, however, contains more 
charity than good reason, " De mortuis nil nisi bonum." 

Saurin, Ball, and Joy — the first mentioned, of huguenot 
extraction, the last, a native of Belfast — were eminent as 
mere chamber or commercial lawyers; Mr. Saurin enjoying 
the most lucrative practice at the Irish bar; but they were 
not distinguished as orators, possessing the faculty of ope- 
rating upon the sympathies or passions of a jury. — Sir Jonah 
Barrington (Judge of the Admiralty Court) extensively 
known for his humorous Reminiscences, enjoyed a respect- 
able practice. His appearance was any thing but prepos- 
sessing. Though tall and well-proportioned, he had a sharp 
aquiline nose, pale complexion, small gray eyes, and was a 
good deal marked with the small-pox. 

Right Honourable John Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare, Lord 
Chancellor of Ireland, by reason of the part taken by him 
on the question of the Union, was fully as unpopular as 
Lord Castlereagh. As a lawyer, his reputation was not 
above mediocrity ; nor, in appearance, though tall and erect, 
was he, in any degree, prepossessing; being designated by 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 57 

the sobriquet of Copper Jack. Lord Redesdale (a native of 
England, previously known as Sir John Mitford) was re- 
spectable as an equity lawyer, but had nothing in his char- 
acter to merit a reminiscence in the historic page. His 
immediate successor (also a native of England) Lord Man- 
ners, — previously known as Baron Sutton — was one of the 
noblest looking men I ever saw upon the bench. Tall, dark, 
silent, learned, and dignified, he commanded the respect of 
the whole profession ; and, even in the Park, on horseback, 
it was impossible to pass him, without being arrested by the 
perfect gracefulness of his slender figure. Right Honourable 
George Ponsonby (pronounced Ponsomby) who officiated as 
lord-chancellor, during the short whig administration of Mr. 
Fox, was alike eminent, as a lawyer, an orator, and a states- 
man ; and enjoyed universal esteem. I have seen Mr. 
Plunket, in the Court of Chancery, but not as Lord Plunket, 
on the bench of that court, of which he had been so eloquent 
and distinguished a member. He was of middling stature, 
and slightly made, of a pale complexion, with sandy-col- 
oured hair and eyelashes, and, although called to the bar in 
the year 1787, is still living. 



PART X. 

Lord Cornwallis is succeeded by the Earl of ffardwicke — His great 
popularity — Robert Emmett — Thomas Addis Emmett — Counsellor 
Sampson — Emmett's insurrection — Murder of Lord Kilwarden and 
his nephew, Mr. Wolfe — Garrison of Dublin -Dispersion of Em- 
mett's men — Mounting guard — Trial of the insurgents — Redmond 
attempts to commit suicide, in jail — His trial and execution — Arrest 
of Emmett — His trial, speech, and execution — Lord Norbury — Em- 
mett's depot — Miss Curran and her sister. 

The Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland 
having been consummated, Lord Cornwallis was succeeded 
by the Earl of Hardwicke ; a grand-son of the distinguished 
6 



58 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 



lawyer, Sir Philip York, better known as Lord Chancellor 
Hardwicke. Equally beloved for his domestic virtues, and 
the impartiality with which he administered the duties of his 
exalted office, this nobleman became a universal favourite. 
The asperity of parties was softened down ; persons who 
had been attached to the United Irish Society, no longer con- 
templated a resort to arms, but endeavoured, in a firm, con- 
stitutional manner, to obtain, through parliament, what they 
had vainly attempted to effect by revolution. It was, there- 
fore, with mingled feelings of astonishment, and deep regret, 
that the orderly, respectable portion of the community, of all 
classes, learned that an insurrection, of a violent character, 
had broken out, in the city of Dublin. The leader of this 
most unjustifiable and unsuccessful emeute, was Robert Em- 
mett ; a young gentleman, then in his twenty-fifth year, (a 
son of Dr. Emmett, state physician, then recently deceased) 
who had been a distinguished student in Trinity College, 
but, shortly before the commencement of the rebellion, in 
'98, with "several other students, had been dismissed from 
that institution, for his supposed connexion with the United 
Irish Society. His elder brother, Thomas Addis Emmett, 
counsellor at law, greatly his superior in years — afterwards 
one of the leading members of the New York bar — had been 
imprisoned, during an early stage of that revolutionary move- 
ment, but, on the arrival of Lord Cornwallis, as viceroy, had 
been, with many others, pardoned, on certain conditions; one 
of which was that of exilement in a foreign land. The two 
brothers, accompanied by Counsellor Sampson — also, at a 
subsequent period, a member of the same bar — took up their 
residence in the Valley of Montmorenci, in France; and 
Robert Emmett, with the knowledge, it was supposed, of his 
elder bro.ther, one day departed from that place of refuge, 
and, under pretence of proceeding to the south of France, 
made his way to one of the neutral states in the north of 
Europe, and thence, to the capital of Ireland. Here, he re- 
mained, for a time, in strict seclusion; his presence known 
only to a few individuals in the city, of an extremely low 
position in society, and a young lady, Miss Curran (and 
perhaps her sister) a daughter of the celebrated advocate ; 
for whom, from the season of boyhood, he had entertained 
a romantic passion, returned, on the part of the young lady, 
with equal sincerity and ardour. His proposal of marriage 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 59 

with the long-cherished object of his affections, having been 
rejected by her father, it was now, perhaps, that, from the 
same cause, which, some years before, seemed to have pre- 
cipitated Lord Edward Fitzgerald, first into the vortex of the 
French Revolution, and then into that of the Irish Rebellion, 
he sought to quell the emotions of an agitated bosom, and a 
distracted mind, unaided by a single individual holding a re- 
spectable position in society, by entering upon the desperate 
attempt of making himself master of a city, then garrisoned 
by a force of ten thousand men, and, having succeeded in 
that achievement, of revolutionizing the kingdom. 

Saturday, the twenty-third of July, 1803, was the day 
chosen for this insane design. I was sitting in our house, 
situated on Merchants' Quay, directly opposite the Four 
Courts, where, in the evening, at least an hour before sun- 
set, I was startled by the discharge of a single shot, appa- 
rently from a musket. This, as I the next day learned, was 
caused by a blunderbuss, fired at Mr. Edward Clarke, a ma- 
gistrate of the county of Dublin, and proprietor of an exten- 
sive calico-printing establishment, at Palmerston, four miles 
distant from the city ; who, on observing, throughout the 
day, the restless movements of the male portion of his nu- 
merous operatives, had ridden to the castle, to give informa- 
tion of that occurrence, to the government, and, on his return, 
was thus rewarded for his magisterial vigilance. Though 
most severely wounded in the breast, he made good his way 
back to the castle, and informed the commander what had 
happened to him ; yet still, no preparations were made, 
against a threatened danger. Another magistrate, also, from 
Wicklow, had given similar information, but it was received 
with equal incredulity and supineness. A corps of yeomanry, 
the Liberty Rangers, returning, in the evening, from parade, 
were, many of them, beset with pikes ; still, no measures 
were taken to guard against surprise, until, at length, when 
now dark, the drums of the twenty-first fusileers, beat to 
arms, and Colonel Brown, their commander, when mount- 
ing his horse, at his lodgings, in Bridgefoot Street, in order 
to join a detachment of his regiment, stationed at the Coombe, 
was shot dead. 

The next scene in this unhappy tragedy, was the assassi- 
nation of Lord Kilwarden, chief justice of the king's bench, 
and his nephew, the Rev. Mr. Wolfe ; in the participation 



60 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

of which, it is impossible to suppose that Mr. Emmett, was, 
in any degree, directly cognizant. Returning to his country 
seat, after discharging his usual duties on the bench, this 
truly humane and amiable man, was proceeding, in his car- 
riage, accompanied by his nephew, and his nephew's wife, 
when, in passing through Thomas Street, not far distant from 
the old market-house, their progress was arrested by a brutal 
mob ; by whom, he himself and his nephew were dragged 
from the carriage, and, in sight of the lady, most barbarously 
and wantonly murdered, by the repeated stabs of innumera- 
ble pikes. But the principal scene in this most extraordinary 
drama, occurred at the lower end of Francis Street ; on the 
western side of which, Robert Emmett and his men, not ex- 
ceeding about three hundred, most wretchedly armed, prin- 
cipally with pikes, had drawn up, after extinguishing the 
lamps, along the curb-stone; where, having been assailed by 
two or three companies of the twenty-first regiment, after a 
brief conflict, in which not a single injury was inflicted upon 
the soldiers, they were dispersed ; carrying with them, 
through the adjacent narrow lanes, the bodies of the killed 
and wounded. 

I was, at that time, together with one of my elder brothers, 
a member of the Grenadier Company of the Merchants' In- 
fantry, which we had joined, a few months previously, when 
that corps, at the same time with all the other yeomanry 
corps in Ireland, shortly after the breach of the Peace of 
Amiens, had been re-organized, for the purpose of aiding in 
repelling a threatened invasion by the French. I had, there- 
fore, a full opportunity of witnessing many things, and of 
entering places, not accessible to persons in coloured clothes. 
About five o'clock, on the morning after this unhappy out- 
break, I was sitting in our parlour, in the second story of the 
house, when I beheld a car, laden with dead bodies, their 
legs dangling with the motion of the vehicle, passing up the 
opposite quay. When it had reached the Four Courts, a 
party of light dragoons appeared, at full trot, escorting the 
lord-lieutenant, on his way from the Lodge in the Phoenix 
Park, to his town residence, at the castle ; and, when the 
viceroy had come within a few yards of this appalling spec- 
tacle, his horse being alarmed, made a bound of many yards, 
to avoid the approaching object ; but his lordship maintained 
a firm seat in the saddle, seemed not in the least disturbed, 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 61 

and, without looking to the right or left, resumed the middle 
of the street ; and dashed, with his former rapidity, to the 
castle. 

Soon afterwards, I proceeded towards Thomas Street, and, 
near the Market House, and the spot where the assassination 
had been committed, I perceived several groups of dead 
bodies, lying, here and there, on the pavement. Being in- 
formed that the bodies of Lord Kilwarden and his nephew, 
had been carried to the neighbouring watch-house, of the 
parish of St. Sepulchre, thither I went; and surely, a more 
horrible or lamentable spectacle, had seldom been presented. 
On the guard-bed, covered by a sheet, which too plainly be- 
trayed the oozing of the life-blood from their many wounds, 
lay the gigantic body of the murdered nobleman and his re- 
verend friend; not a single person, except myself, be'mg then 
in the apartment, to disturb the solemnity of the awful 
scene ! 

Through the remainder of the day, the city continued to 
be greatly excited. Few persons ventured into the streets, 
except those in uniform— regulars, militia, and yeomanry. 
The garrison consisted of three regiments of infantry of 
the line ; two of militia (in appearance and discipline in no 
way distinguishable from the former;) two of dragoons, a 
brigade of artillery, and about five thousand yeomanry, horse 
and foot, in handsome uniform, fully armed and equipped, 
and quite respectable in point of discipline. Recruits were 
constantly applying for admission, at the head-quarters of the 
yeomanry; and young gentlemen of high degree, and even 
the sons of noblemen, were busily employed in conveying 
arms and ammunition, from the castle to the several corps. 

Late in the afternoon of Sunday, there occurred a serious 
alarm. The drums beat to arms, and men in uniform, with 
fixed bayonets, ran, in every direction, to their respective 
guard-rooms. It was supposed that the insurrection had 
broken out afresh, and, in a few minutes, every soldier in 
the city was at his post. The cause of the alarm, however, 
seemed to have proceeded from mere accident, or a wanton 
and ill-judged attempt to insult the military. It appears, 
that as the bodies of Lord Kilwarden and his nephew were 
conveyed, in hearses, from the watch-house already men- 
tioned, to the late residence of the former, in Merion Square, 
a slate, or tile, either fell, or was thrown from the top of a 

6* 



62 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

house in a narrow lane, through which they had to pass, 
called Skinner Row, which lighted upon some of the escort; 
and this being near the castle, and the party of dragoons 
supposing they were attacked, a change of their position sud- 
denly took place, which, being observed by the sentinels at 
the castle, the gates were immediately closed, the guard 
turned out, and the drums ordered to beat to arms! 

The city of Dublin is almost entirely encircled by two 
canals ; one, called the Grand Canal, on the south, and the 
other, the Royal Canal, on the north. Opposite the termina- 
tion of each principal street, extending to the banks of each 
of these canals, there was a stone bridge, defended by a 
picketed barrier, with gates and a guard-house, erected during 
the rebellion of '98, and still in sufficient repair. At each of 
these gates, were stationed, early in the evening of Sunday, 
a sergeant's guard of infantry, and two cavalry videttes, and 
over every three bridges, a lieutenant : at the Royal Exchange 
also, and at the Rotunda, there was stationed a captain's 
guard, of one hundred men ; the entire garrison, of nearly 
twelve thousand, were kept on duty for several nights, and 
the additional guards, of which I have now spoken, were 
regularly mounted during the space of four months ; the 
yeomanry doing duty in the night, the other troops in the 
day. 

The insurrection commenced and terminated on the twen- 
ty-third of July; a simultaneous attempt, made to excite the 
people, in the county of Down, by Captain Russel, having 
proved entirely abortive. Except Robert Emmett himself, 
this individual (afterwards executed at Downpatrick) was the 
only person of education, concerned in this most deplorable 
attempt at a revolution ; and, a young man, named Dennis 
Redmond, the only person known to be possessed of pro- 
perty. 

A good many prisoners had been taken on the night of the 
insurrection ; some of whom it was, of course, proper to 
bring to trial, on a charge of high treason, and also of mur- 
der. An application was accordingly made, to the govern- 
ment, by Mr. Kemmis, the Crown Solicitor, for an order to 
have the unfortunate men tried by court-martial ; but Lord 
Hardwicke promptly refused to comply with this request, 
declaring, that he considered the civil power sufficiently ef- 
fective to protect the government, and that they should have 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 63 

the full benefit of a trial by a jury of their country. A 
special commission was then issued, to hold a court of Oyer 
and Terminer, in the Sessions House, in Green Street ; at 
which, one of the twelve judges was to preside. Having 
been subpoenaed to give evidence on behalf of Redmond, I 
attended many days in that court ; and never was more lenity 
shown in the prosecution, or impartiality on the part of the 
judges, than was exhibite'd at the several trials, during my 
presence in court. Mr. Standish O'Grady (afterwards chief- 
justice of the King's Bench) acted as attorney-general, and 
Mr. Plunket, (subsequently, Lord Plunket, lord-chancellor) 
as solicitor-general. 

Dennis Redmond, whose name I have introduced, had 
served an apprenticeship to a hatter, in Parliament Street, 
and not being over-fond of that line of business, he was de- 
sirous of acquiring a more general knowledge of trade. He 
was accordingly introduced to our House, by a highly re- 
spectable shop-keeper (or country merchant, as he would be 
called in the United States) with a request that we would 
obtain for him a suitable situation, in the house of some one 
of our numerous friends ; and, in the exercise of that hospi- 
tality, almost universally practised by persons, in Dublin, 
doing business with country purchasers, he was occasionally 
invited to our table. When subpoenaed to give evidence in 
his behalf, I became alarmed, fearing, that, when compelled 
to speak the whole truth, I should rather injure, than be of 
service to the young man. I accordingly waited upon Coun- 
sellor McNally, with whom I had some previous acquaint- 
ance, to know was he employed to defend Redmond, and, if 
so, to request that he would not examine me as a witness, as 
I had heard him speak rank treason, at my father's table, 
where he presumed he was safe, in the expression of hie 
opinions. Mr. McNally replied, that I should be asked to 
testify, merely as regarded his moral character, and I re- 
joined that I believed it to be perfectly good, and should ac- 
cordingly attend the court. 

The morning fixed for Redmond's trial, at length arrived ; 
and, when I was waiting to see the prisoner brought into 
court, to the amazement of all present, Baron George an- 
nounced, that " the unfortunate young man had superseded 
the necessity of being passed upon by a jury, having, that 
moment, committed suicide, in the adjoining jail." A rush 



64 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

was made by those particularly interested in his fate, and, 
amongst the number, I left the court, and followed the jailer, 
and a few others, into Newgate. Having ascended a short 
stone stair-case, from the yard, we entered a well-furnished 
apartment, on the first floor ; in which, there was a well-ap- 
pointed bed, with curtains, a decent carpet, some chairs, and 
a dressing-table ; we were horror struck, at beholding poor 
-Redmond, extended, with his huge length, on the floor, sur- 
rounded by a pool of blood. He lay on his back, motion- 
less, his hands arranged in the manner of a corpse, and, was, 
to all appearance, beyond redemption, dead ! We viewed 
him, for some minutes, in silent horror, mingled with a sen- 
timent of pity. Presently, the venerable Mr. Leake, the city- 
surgeon, entered the apartment; and, inserting his finger into 
the wound, above his right ear, he announced it as his opin- 
ion, that he was not dead, that there was merely an abrasion 
and concussion of the skull, and that the ball, which had 
penetrated so far, would, on search, be found on the floor. 
His opinion was correct. Lying under the dressing-table, 
was a piece of lead — an elongated musket ball — which, being 
too large for the calibre of the pistol that had been used, the 
powder had not possessed sufficient strength, and it had re- 
bounded from the prisoner's skull. This fact having been 
ascertained, the surgeon drew forth his knife, with which, 
having made a deep incision across the wound, he probed 
around it with his fingers; when, immediately, the prostrate 
youth began to bellow, and to kick and plunge, so that it re- 
quired the united strength of all in the chamber, to hold him 
down. Having placed him on the bed, before morning he 
showed signs of returning consciousness ; and, in a few days 
afterwards, I received another summons, to attend his trial. 
The right side of his head had been shaved ; a black plaster 
laid upon the wound, and he had become as pale almost as 
death itself. 

When I took my stand — (or rather seat) upon the table — 
for witnesses then sat, when giving their testimony — I was 
asked, by Counsellor McNally, the usual questions, as re- 
garded Redmond's moral character ; to which, having given 
favourable answers, I was on the point of descending from 
the table, when Mr. O'Grady, laying his hand upon my knee, 
put a question to me, touching my knowledge of the pris- 
oner's political opinions. I was thus taken completely 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 65 

aback, and, looking inquiringly, or rather piteously, at Mr. 
McNally, that gentleman promptly replied to the question of 
the attorney-general, that I had been called to give evidence 
merely as to Redmond's moral character; and, while they 
were discussing this little matter between them, I slipped 
quietly from the table, disappeared amidst the crowd ; and, 
was not again, to my knowledge, required to resume my 
station. 

The pistol, it was said, with which Redmond had attempt- 
ed to evade the operation of the law, had been brought to 
him by his aunt, Mrs. Hatchell, a highly respectable lady, 
the mother of an intimate acquaintance of mine, the present 
Counsellor Hatchell, Q. C; one of the barristers who after- 
wards defended O'Connell and his associates, when tried in 
the Queen's Bench, for inciting the people of Ireland to dis- 
satisfaction with the existing government, by means of those 
monster-meetings, of which we have heard so much. Her 
object seemed to be the prevention of a forfeiture to the 
crown, of his real estate; Redmond being the owner of 
houses in the city, in value about three thousand pounds. 

The next day after his conviction, Redmond was conveyed 
to the place assigned for his execution, opposite a house 
owned by him, on the Coal Quay. I was standing on the 
Inns' Quay, directly opposite ; and, the cart having been 
drawn from under the triangle, his ponderous body swung 
heavily backwards ; and, at that instant, hearing a most 
piercing shriek, I looked around, and, in one of the highest 
windows of a house directly opposite the gallows, I beheld a 
young woman, with dishevelled hair, and apparently, in an 
agony of grief. On inquiry, I learned that she had, for some 
time, been under the "protection" of the youthful victim of 
Robert Emmett's folly, and, impelled by a rather singular 
species of feminine attachment, had visited the scene of his 
expiring struggle. 

The next person brought to trial, in whose fate much in- 
terest was felt, was Robert Emmett himself. More than 
two weeks had intervened, since the night of the insurrec- 
tion, and it is probable, he might have escaped, had he not 
been infatuated with a desire to remain in the vicinity of 
Miss Curran. Her father resided, in summer, at a beautiful 
seat, near the base of the Dublin Mountains, about four 
miles west of the city; the approach to which was over the 



66 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

Grand Canal, by means of Charlemont Bridge ; and, in a 
house, not many yards from the latter, he was, one evening, 
arrested. The whole garrison being then on duty, I was 
not present at the trial; but I know that it was conducted 
with perfect fairness, and that he was defended by McNally, 
a man well qualified to take advantage of any informality in 
the indictment, who knew the rules of evidence, applicable 
to the charge of high treason, as well as any lawyer in 
existence, and whose feelings, personal as well as political, 
were warmly enlisted in favour of his unhappy client. The 
speech of Emmett, when, before sentence, he was asked, 
" What he had to say, &c," was delivered, I believe, about 
eleven o'clock, on one of the darkest and most disagreeable 
nights that I ever experienced, at that season ; and my recol- 
lection inclines me to the opinion, that the speech, as ever 
since published, is a literal transcript of the very words 
spoken by him, on that most distressing occasion. Emmett 
was an orator, both by nature and education, as was fre- 
quently evinced by him, when a member of the Historical 
Society, at College. But it is unfair to charge Lord Nor- 
bury with cruelty to the unhappy prisoner. The reply, 
which may be made to the question, " What have you to 
say, why sentence of death and execution should not be 
awarded against you, according to law ?" should consist of 
matter of law, in arrest of judgment ; whereas, the entire of 
Robert Emmett' s celebrated speech, consists of matter of jus- 
tification, and cutting insult to the presiding judge. I speak, 
here, as a lawyer of some experience ; and, moreover, I will 
go further, at the hazard of incurring the displeasure of my 
American friends and Americans in general, who are less in- 
timately acquainted with the character of Lord Norbury, 
and also the circumstances of that ill-judged insurrection, 
that Lord Norbury, although wanting in sufficient dignity, 
and indulging too freely in jokes and puns, when on the 
bench, was not a person of cruel disposition, but possessed 
as humane a feeling towards unhappy prisoners, as the ma- 
jority of judges, either on the Irish or the American bench; 
and also, that, in Ireland, and in the city of Dublin, in parti- 
cular, from the great disproportion of means to accomplish so 
momentous an object, the decided amelioration of the admin- 
istration of the laws, and the fact, of the people at large, 
both Roman Catholic and Protestant, — even those who had 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 67 

been United Irishmen — having abandoned all idea of a re- 
sort to arms, that movement of Robert Emmett was con- 
sidered entirely unjustifiable, and unqualifiedly condemned, 
by every intelligent and respectable individual in the king- 
dom. 

The next day after his conviction, Robert Emmett was 
taken to the appointed place of execution. He was doomed 
to expiate his folly, in Thomas Street, near St. Catherine's 
Church, and directly opposite the head of Bridgefoot Street; 
his depot, or magazine, such as it was, being in a lane 
leading from that street, at the back of the City Marshalsea. 
I witnessed the distressing scene, from a window near the 
church, about sixty yards from the temporary platform 
which he had to ascend. He was a slender young man, 
about five feet ten inches in height, with light, sandy-col- 
oured hair, and thin whiskers, and had the appearance of 
being near-sighted. Like all his confederates, he seemed 
perfectly collected, ascended the ladder with a firm, steady 
step, and, when the support was withdrawn from under him, 
the movement of his hands, and the lower portions of his 
arms, seemed, for a few seconds, to indicate some degree of 
suffering ; caused by the fact, perhaps, of the rope, used on 
the occasion, having been suspended, during the preceding 
night, exposed to rain ; it having been applied to the same 
purpose, in the execution of one of his friends, on the day 
before. 

I had been in Emmett' s depot, the day following the in- 
surrection. It was a small two-story building, nearly in a 
state of ruin, appurtenant to a neighbouring brewery, of a 
friend of mine, Mr. John Coleman; who, having been 
brought before the privy-council, experienced some diffi- 
culty in persuading that body of the perfect ignorance of 
the purpose for which it had been rented from him, by an 
unknown agent of Robert Emmett. The floor was strewed 
with gun-powder, and some powder was also packed in, bags ; 
part of which, our corps used, when firing blank-cartridges; 
and certainly a more wretched imitation of an efficient ma- 
teriel of war, never was manufactured. It blackened both 
our faces, and our scarlet uniforms, and left our muskets in 
such a state, that, after a few discharges, they became use- 
less, and required to be carefully washed. 

Robert Emmett's men, however, had little occasion for 



68 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

gun-powder; their arms being almost exclusively pikes, of 
a most wretched description. Instead of being of ash, hand- 
somely rounded off, like those used by the people in the re- 
bellion of '98, the handles were made out of a common, 
rough deal-board, flat-cut, with the corners a little taken off; 
and the heads, instead of being shaped like regular halberds, 
consisted of a piece of nail-rod iron, about nine inches long, 
clumsily fastened, at one end, by a couple of rings ; hundreds 
of which, it is probable, can yet be seen in one of the build- 
ings in the Lower Castle Yard ; to which, also, the arms de- 
livered up by the people, in the rebellion of '98, were all 
conveyed. 

The number of persons executed, at that time, according 
to the best of my recollection, was about sixteen. Part of 
the sentence was, that the head was to be cut off; the ex- 
ecutioner holding it up, in one hand, and exclaiming, three 
times, "This is the head of a traitor!" Whether or not 
Robert Emmett suffered decapitation after death, I know 
not, as I very soon left the melancholy scene ; but I am 
inclined to think, that, in his case, that final ceremony 
was omitted; and I believe that his body was conveyed, by 
his friends, to the family burying-ground, at St. Werburgh's 
Church. 

I have spoken of Miss Curran, as probably the chief at- 
traction by which Emmett was drawn to the Irish Capital. 
Mr. Curran had two daughters. 1 have been in company 
with them both, and have frequently conversed with them. 
They were so much alike, that they might have been taken 
for twins. Neither of them was handsome ; they had a 
dingy complexion, not unlike that of their distinguished fa- 
ther; and were a good deal freckled, with dark hair, approach- 
ing to black. They were extremely playful and lively, and 
seemed inclined to indulge in innocent mischief. Robert 
Emmett's favourite, I have heard, became insane ; and, when 
recovered, married a clergyman in England ; but, whether 
or not she be now living, 1 am unable to say. 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 69 



PART XI. 

The Duke of Bedford, lord-lieutenant — Duchess of Bedford — Her loss at 
cards — Duchess of Gordon and the skip rope — Duke of Richmond, 
lord-lieutenant — His duels with the Duke of York and Thcophilus 
Swift — Mademoiselle Queraille — Duke of Wellington — Mr. Peel, 
Irish secretary, challenges O'Connell — Death of the Duke of Rich- 
mond, in Canada, of hydrophobia — Archibald Hamilton Rowan — His 
return from exile. 

The year after those unhappy occurrences, the Earl of 
Hardvvicke was succeeded, in the viceroyal office, by the 
Duke of Bedford (father of the present prime minister of 
England) a nobleman, who not only professed, but also prac- 
tised those liberal principles, for which the family of Russel 
had been so long distinguished. He was married to Lady 
Georgiana Gordon, a daughter of the Duke of Gordon; 
one of four sisters, all of whom were fortunate in contract- 
ing marriages with noblemen of very exalted rank. The 
Duchess of Gordon was a woman of a managing disposi- 
tion, judging by what the author has heard, both with regard 
to her own elevation, and the rank to which she aspired, for 
her children. She was the daughter of an humble apothe- 
cary, who resided in a small village, near the Highlands of 
Scotland ; through which, the Duke of Gordon occasionally 
passed, on his way to his remote estates. One day, his lord- 
ship's carriage having broken down, he stopped in the village, 
to have it repaired, and took up his quarters at the inn, di- 
rectly opposite her father's house. The young lady had 
heard that his grace was a single man, and thought she would 
lose nothing by endeavouring to attract his notice. She ac- 
cordingly brought out her skip-rope; and, with the agility of 
a village belle, showed off to so much advantage, that the 
duke viewed her with admiration, ere he took his departure, 
was introduced, and, in due course of time, having offered 
her a coronet, she became his wife. 

Having managed so well for herself, she was determined 
7 



70 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

to do equally well, if possible, for her daughters, and to have 
a duke for each of the four. The young ladies being at- 
tractive, without much trouble, she succeeded in obtaining, 
for the two eldest, noblemen of the desired rank — the Duke 
of Manchester and the Duke of Richmond — but, several 
years elapsed, before she was equally fortunate with regard 
to Lady Georgiana ; although the best looking of the four. 
She fixed upon the elder brother of the present possessor of 
the title, John, Duke of Bedford ; the handsomest man in 
the list of the British peerage, and who, moreover, enjoyed 
an estate of seventy thousand pounds per annum. The 
duke said he liked the girl well enough, but that no woman 
in existence should be forced upon him; and, accordingly, 
when Lady Georgiana and her mother made their appearance 
at one watering-place, his lordship would regularly flee to 
another. At length, that popular young nobleman met with 
an accident, when hunting, which caused his death ; and, in 
a reasonable time, the same game was played with his suc- 
cessor to the title, which terminated in the union of the 
parties. Thus, the mother had accomplished three-fourths 
of her ambition, having obtained three dukes for her sons- 
in-law; but the remaining girl, becoming rather passe, she 
judged it prudent to abate a little of her aspirations, and be 
contented with a son-in-law one degree below the rank of 
duke; the Marquis Cornwallis, son of the deceased viceroy. 

Like many other ladies in high life, it was said that the 
Duchess of Bedford was fond of the card-table, and that, at 
one sitting, she lost twenty-thousand pounds. Not having 
the funds to discharge this debt of honour, she, the next 
morning, made the loss known to her husband; who offered 
to extricate her from this very humiliating position, on one 
condition — that she would never play another card — with 
which, having complied, the duke gave her a check on his 
banker for the whole amount; and, it is only justice to the 
duchess, to record, that she faithfully performed her pro- 
mise. 

The Duke of Bedford was succeeded in the viceroyalty, 
by the Duke of Richmond; previously well known as the 
Colonel Lenox, who had fought a duel with the Duke of 
York, second son of George III. They quarrelled about a 
setting-dog, and the colonel having shot off one of the 
side-curls of his royal highness, the misunderstanding was 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 71 

accommodated between them. Shortly afterwards, the colo- 
nel having arrived in Dublin, with his regiment, an attorney 
of the city, Mr. Theophilus Swift, feeling deeply incensed 
and indignant, that a subject should have challenged, to mor- 
tal combat, a member of the royal family, sought occasion 
of a quarrel with Colonel Lenox. They fought in the 
Phoenix Park, and the attorney returned from the field of 
honour with a ball in his hip. The colonel was not of a 
vindictive disposition ; and, when he visited the Irish Capi- 
tal, at a future day, he sent for his former antagonist, and, 
during his stay in Dublin, treated him, in his " potations 
deep," as one of his warmest friends. 

The Duke of Richmond, a tall maij, with a dark com- 
plexion, was one of the four peers, of the same rank, who 
were descended, illegitimately, from Charles II. The name 
of his fair ancestor, was Mademoiselle Queraille, one of the 
ladies of the court of Louis XIV.; by whom, she had been 
brought to Calais, after having been selected by Charles' own 
sister, the Duchess of Orleans, for the purpose of persuading 
the amorous monarch, by the allurement of her beauty, to 
consent to the conquest of the Low Countries, by the French 
King. He died, more than twenty years ago, in a cabin, in 
Canada, when acting as governor, in consequence of his 
hand, which was slightly abraded, having been licked by a 

favourite dog. The Lord Lenox, who was a passenger 

in the ill-fated steam-ship, the President, on her way from 
New York to Bristol, was one of his sons. 

Sir Arthur Wellesley, who obtained the title of the Duke 
of Wellington, for his splendid victories in the Peninsula, 
was, for some time, the chief secretary of the Duke of Rich- 
mond. He enjoyed that office, even when he defeated Kel- 
lerman at Vameira ; and I well remember passing him, in 
review, in the Phoenix Park, on the King's birth day, shortly 
after his return from Portugal. He appeared to me, in height 
about five feet ten inches ; which is much taller than he is 
described, in some of the popular novels of the day; and a 
more graceful figure I never saw on a horse's back. 

The successor of Sir Arthur, in the office of secretary, 
was Mr. Peel; who, on the death of his father, about fifteen 
years ago, became Sir Robert Peel. Mr. Peel, though of 
quite an unassuming and modest demeanor, had much the 
appearance, in the street, of a high-bred gentleman. He 



72 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

had married a relation of the Duke of Richmond, was, at 
that time, about four and twenty, slender, and rather above 
the middle size, and had light brown hair. 

This period was the epoch of the movement made for the 
repeal of the Union, by Mr. Daniel O'Connell, then in about 
the thirtieth year of his age. It cannot be denied, by any 
impartial observer, that Mr. O'Connell was, in a high degree 
intemperate and personal in his language, when addressing 
his partizans, in public ; and his most sarcastic shafts seemed 
aimed at the new secretary, Mr. Peel. The consequence 
was a challenge, by the latter, and their both proceeding on 
their way to Scotland, for the purpose of meeting in the iield ; 
a rencounter happily prevented by their arrest. 

About this time, trie celebrated Archibald Hamilton Rowan 
returned from exile. He was a son of Mr. Gawin Hamilton, 
of Killeleagh, in the county of Down, had been one of the 
earliest persons concerned in the organization of the United 
Irish Society, and, soon after the suspension of the habeas 
corpus act, had been imprisoned, in Newgate, on suspicion 
of high treason. Some months- had elapsed, without any 
indication of his being indicted, but, at length, he received 
information from a friend, that it had been determined that 
he would very shortly be brought to trial, on a charge of 
having participated in a correspondence with the govern- 
ment of France. Arrangements were, therefore, made, for 
his escape; and May Eve having been fixed upon for that 
purpose, a number of boys were employed, to kindle bon- 
fires, and make as much bustle as possible, in the open space, 
in front of the prison. His wife paid him her accustomed 
visit ; and, as the keepers were ignorant of the design of 
bringing him to trial, little caution was used, to prevent his 
escape. When Mrs. Rowan was taking her departure, he 
accompanied her to the outside gate, and, having descended 
the steps, and handed her into her carriage, he quickly fol- 
lowed her, unnoticed. Another carriage having been placed 
alongside, Mr. Rowan walked right through the first, without 
stopping, into the other; and, ere his departure was discov- 
ered, had escaped, in a direction unknown to the keepers ; 
and, every thing having been previously arranged, he made 
good his way to the United States. 

Having visited Wilmington, in the state of Delaware, and 
met with some person who had a slight knowledge of calico- 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 73 

printing, Mr. Rowan commenced that business, on the Bran- 
dy wine Creek, about two miles from the town, at an old 
building, now, and perhaps also then, the property of one of 
the family of Canby. The humble stone dwelling-house, in 
which he resided, with no other companion than an Irishman, 
named Higgins, is still, as well as the former building, in ex- 
istence; and the little green is shown, on which he bleached 
his cloth. The descent from the main road to this place, is 
almost precipitous, and covers a distance of more than half a 
mile; yet, up this hill, and down it, also, did the illustrious 
exile, reared as a gentleman, formerly the visitant of courts, 
at home and on the continent, convey, in a wheel-barrow, his 
finished and unfinished cloth, and nearly every article used 
on his little grounds. He also entered on the business of 
brewing, on the same stream ; and, with perfect resignation 
conveyed the beer, on a barrow, made so large that it could 
accommodate a number of barrels. But Mr. Rowan was a 
man of unusual bodily power. In height, above six feet, he 
stood before you a Hercules, erect, well-proportioned, and 
displaying a prominence, both of bone and muscle, without 
the least appearance of obesity, in a degree seldom witnessed 
in the human frame. He was not, however, a handsome 
man ; sternness and resolution being his chief characteristics. 
The lineaments of his face, are well preserved, in a bust, 
sent, by himself, from Europe, which may be seen in a 
house, at one of the toll-gates in the neighbourhood of Wil- 
mington. His wife, also, was nearly as tall as her husband; 
and his two daughters, both of whom I have frequently seen, 
partook of the height and exterior of their father. 

Mr. Rowan had been permitted to return to his native 
country, and enjoy the family estate, on condition of his 
pleading the royal pardon in the King's Bench, in order to 
remove his attaindre. He was, in a short time, threatened 
with several law-suits, which were averted by a resort to ar- 
bitration. To Mr. Tresham Gregg, who had acted as chief 
turnkey, in Newgate, at the time of his escape, and, who, 
for his indulgence, had been dismissed from office, and re- 
duced to poverty, was awarded the sum of fifteen hundred 
pounds; and, to Mr. Hamilton, his.relative, an attorney, re- 
siding in Dominick Street, several thousand pounds, for his 
unwearied exertions in collecting the rents of his wife's 
estate, from timid and obstinate tenants, part of which he re- 

7* 



74 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

mitted to his principal ; incurring, thereby, the hazard of a 
prosecution. 

The Captain Rowan, who afterwards commanded a Brit- 
ish seventy-four, at the siege of Fort McHenry, was a son of 
the celebrated patriot. 



PART XII. 

Series of remarkable and fatal duels — Mr. Hatchell and Mr. Morley — 
Mr. Alcock and Mr. Colclough— Major Campbell and Captain Boyd — 
Execution of Major Campbell, for murder. 

The challenge given by Mr. Peel to O'Connell, reminds 
me of a series of duels, each of which was fatal to one of the 
antagonists, and attended with something remarkable, in the 
result. The first of these, was between Mr. Morley, an at- 
torney at law, and Mr. Hatchell, a young barrister, whose 
name has been already introduced ; with both of whom, and 
the wife of the former, I was intimately acquainted. Like 
many other junior practitioners, when first admitted to the 
bar, the latter eked out a scanty income, by reporting a few 
important cases for the press. In one of these, Mr. Morley 
having been employed as attorney, charged Mr. Hatchell 
with having reported erroneously, to the injury of his client, 
and requested the reporter to publish an avowal of the error; 
but the latter persisting in the correctness of the report, warm 
expressions were interchanged, which induced Mr. Hatchell 
to challenge the attorney. Having gone to the field, Mr. 
Morley was killed, at the first shot; and Mr. Hatchell ap- 
peared, voluntarily, at the next court of oyer and terminer, 
to stand his trial. The plea of " not guilty," having been 
given to the indictment, proclamation was made, for " the 
next of kin," to appear and prosecute. Immediately a vene- 
rable old gentleman, the Rev. Mr. McKay, of the established 
church, addressed the court ; saying, that he was the father 
of Mr. Morley's widow, that he had made inquiry into the 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 75 

circumstances of the duel, and, being satisfied that " it had 
been conducted in the manner usually practised by gentle- 
men," he would offer no evidence. Mr. Hatchell was, of 
course, acquitted. Mr. Morley had been twice married ; the 
second time, to the widow of the Earl of Belvidere, a noble- 
man far advanced in years, who had married the young Miss 
McKay, on account of her youth and beauty ; and, leaving 
her a handsome dower, she was an object not to be slighted 
by a member of the second class of the legal profession ; the 
two branches, represented by counsellor and attorney, being, 
in practice, entirely distinct. The latter institutes the action, 
and prepares the pleadings; the former reviews the pleadings, 
conducts the case in court, and, when consulted, gives his ad- 
vice in matters of law. The counsellor is a person of liberal, 
collegiate education; the attorney, examined only as regards 
his knowledge of the Latin tongue. 

The next affair of the kind, worthy of remembrance, was 
between Mr. Alcock and Mr. Colclough, (pronounced Coke- 
ley) near the city of Wexford. These two gentlemen were, 
at this time, candidates for seats in the imperial parliament; 
and the election was proceeding, when the former charged 
the latter with tampering unfairly with his particular friends. 
This was denied ; a meeting took place, and, at the first fire, 
Mr. Colclough was killed. A vindictive prosecution ensued, 
and Mr. Alcock was brought to trial, for murder. An at- 
tempt was made to show that the survivor had worn, in the 
field, glasses of a higher magnifying power than usual, and 
every exertion used to obtain a verdict of conviction. The 
prosecution, however, failed. The presiding judge was 
Baron Smith, one of the severest moralists of all the twelve 
judges on the Irish bench; yet, after recapitulating the evi- 
dence, and giving a history of the statute and common law, 
affecting the case, he charged the jury, that "the only ques- 
tion they had to decide, was, whether or not the duel had 
been conducted according to the rules established amongst 
gentlemen ; if they were satisfied that it had been so con- 
ducted, they must acquit the prisoner;" and they accordingly 
rendered a verdict of acquittal. 

The last of these rencontres (for the case I am now about 
to record, could not be properly considered as a duel) was 
between two officers of the twenty-first regiment of infantry, 
known as the Scotch Fusileers — Major Campbell and Cap- 



76 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

tain Boyd. The regiment was then quartered at Newry ; a 
town in the north of Ireland, situated partly in the county of 
Down, and partly in Armagh. There had been a review in 
the forenoon; and, at dinner, a conversation occurred, re- 
garding the manner in which the major had manoeuvred the 
regiment; Captain Boyd commenting on the tactics of the 
major, in a way which gave his superior officer offence. 
Major Campbell having left the table, retired to his chamber, 
in the barracks, and, having loaded a case of pistols, pro- 
ceeded to a large room adjacent, and sent his servant with 
his compliments to Captain Boyd, saying that he wished to 
see him. The latter promptly obeyed the summons, and, 
having entered the room, the major, instantly closing the door, 
handed the captain one of the pistols, saying, " Captain Boyd, 
you have insulted me ; you must give me satisfaction." — 
" Not without friends, sir?" " Yes, by G d, this mo- 
ment; take your ground." Fearing to be branded as a 
coward, the captain received one of the pistols, and their 
discharge quickly brought their brother-officers from the 
mess. The captain had been hit, had fallen upon a chair, 
and, in the act of expiring, was able only to articulate, " Ma- 
jor Campbell, you are a bad man; you hurried me; you 
know I said we should have friends ;" and he breathed his 
last. 

There could be only one opinion, in relation to this tragical 
affair. Captain Boyd had been taken by surprise, and mur- 
dered. The major was accordingly brought to trial, at the 
ensuing assizes, in the city of Armagh, was found guilty, 
and sentenced to be hung. He was a husband, the father of 
eight children ; Captain Boyd, left a widow, with nine. The 
wife of Major Campbell was not wanting in affection, in this 
afflicting crisis. The regular packet having sailed from 
Dublin to Holyhead, she procured a fast-sailing pilot-boat, 
crossed over to the opposite coast, proceeded, with post- 
horses, to London, and threw herself at the feet of the prince- 
regent; supplicating his royal-highness to extend mercy to 
her husband, herself, and her eight children. But her peti- 
tion was refused. Agonized, doubtless, by this heart-rending 
appeal made to his clemency, in the last resort, the prince 
replied, that, much as he felt for her distressed situation, the 
law, in this case, must take its course : he had most atten- 
tively read the report of the trial, and had come to the same 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 77 

decision as the jury, that the affair had not been conducted 
in that manner which was well understood amongst men of 
honour. Major Campbell was, accordingly, executed; in 
his fate, clearly marking the distinction between a fair duel, 
and a hasty assassination, without the presence of friends. 



PART XIII. 

The Author removes to the county of Meath — State of the country — 
Operations of carding a man's back — Is robbed, by three men, on the 
highway — Pursuit of the robbers, their arrest, and execution — Deadly 
conflict with the police — Patroles organized by Gustavus Lambert and 
the author — Burglars taken and executed, and the neighbourhood 
cleared of marauders — Robbery of the Marquis Wellesley's agent, at 
Dangan Castle — Roger 0"Connor tried for robbing the Cork mail. 

Having resided ten years in the city of Dublin, in the 
summer of 1810, I removed with my family, to the county 
of Meath, to a property I had recently purchased, on the 
river Boyne, about four miles below Navan, and about eight 
above the site of the celebrated battle ; and also within view 
of the ruins of Tara, so prominent in the ancient history of 
Ireland. My residence was also within about a dozen miles 
of Dangan Castle, situated in the same river, the birth-place 
of the Iron Duke. 

During the first three years of my residence at this place, 
the neighbourhood was as free from acts of violence, as any 
other in the province of Leinster; but a change for the 
worse, at length, took place, which rendered it unsafe, either 
to travel alone, or to trust to the ordinary security of bolts 
and bars, against midnight robbers. Every Sunday morning, 
we regularly expected to hear of some one or more houses 
having been forcibly entered, the night before, by a gang of 
perhaps a dozen fellows ; not industrious, labouring men, 
with families, driven, by necessity, to eke out a precarious 
subsistence, by this resort to burglarious violence — for there 



78 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 



was no want of employment — but stout, hearty, bull-necked 
young fellows, who had adopted this mode of life, in the 
mere indulgence of a savage disposition, and a hatred of the 
restraints of law. I have seen, at the county-town of Trim, 
more than sixty individuals, of this description, arraigned, 
for capital offences, at one session of the Assizes ; and have, 
myself, sat on a jury, before whom were tried not less than 
twelve fellows, for the joint offence of burglary, and the bar- 
barous practice called " carding." This operation is per- 
formed by stripping the unhappy father of the family to his 
bare skin, stretching him on his face upon a table, and, while 
he is held fast, by a sufficient number of the gang, one of 
them places upon his back a piece of strong leather; thickly 
stuck with four-penny nails ; a second hammers it into his 
body by a quantum sufficit of the beetle, and a third drags 
it, downwards, through the lacerated and bleeding flesh ; the 
operation being repeated, until the sufferer, in his agony, 
either discloses the whereabouts of his little treasure, or pro- 
mises, perhaps, to reduce his rents. 

Difference in religion had no part in these barbarous in- 
flictions. There existed, in the county of Meath, no secta- 
rian animosity, whatever; there being, at that time, as far as 
my knowledge extended, only two sects, the Roman Catholic, 
and the Church of England ; the former outnumbering the 
latter, in the proportion of at least five to one ; yet, all lived 
together in perfect harmony. 

I was favoured with a full share of the spoliations by the 
highway robbers. I had gone to the fair of Navan, in order 
to purchase a draft-horse ; having, while there, heard of three 
gentlemen that were that morning robbed, on their way, se- 
verally, to that place. Having stopped, on my way home, 
to dine with some friends, the miscellaneous conversation in 
which we indulged, had driven these occurrences from my 
memory ; and, having remounted my horse, rather a dull 
animal, not generally used for the saddle, I was jogging 
along, the sun yet about an hour high, looking at the men 
reaping in the fields, and, having reached a spot entirely 
overhung, on one side, by a lofty thorn hedge, my progress 
was arrested, and my horse brought nearly round, by the 
hand of a man, thrown over the reins, on the right side. I 
looked at him, for an instant, with astonishment and sur- 
prise, as he was endeavouring to cock a pistol, supposing he 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 79 

intended assassination, and quickly sprung from my horse, 
to the opposite side ; stooping, to avoid the expected shot ; 
when, 10 ! I ran right against another fellow, flanked by a 
well-grown boy; each, also, with a pistol, of the same de- 
scription, in his hand. They were all three dressed pre- 
cisely alike, — in the same way as the southern peasantry, 
with decent gray " trusties," or great coats, new woollen 
hats, and their necks bare. My horse having proceeded 
homewards, the three fellows drew up in front of me, and, 
at the same time, two women passed in the space between 
us, apparently unconscious of their design. Another woman, 
also, was standing at the door of a porter's lodge, and a boy 
was sitting on one of the piers of the gate ; by whom, I after- 
wards learned, that the whole proceeding had been observed. 
The men did not demand any thing; but, well knowing, now, 
what was their object, I handed them some silver, and, when 
they seemed dissatisfied, I gave them my watch. They 
seemed on the point of starting, but, wishing to detain them 
a little longer, for the purpose of being able afterwards to 
identify them, I reached them a large memorandum book, 
covered with morocco leather, which they eagerly inspected, 
and returned to me, at my particular request. During the 
inspection, I was not idle. Being now perfectly collected, I 
ran my eyes along their faces, several times, most carefully, 
and completely fixed, in my memory, their features and ex- 
pression. At length, one of them said, " Go on," and they 
all disappeared behind the lofty hedge. 

Scarcely had they departed, w.hen several of the country- 
men, whom I knew, came up, and, at my request, they pur- 
sued the fellows, until, as I was subsequently informed, they 
became intimidated, by the presenting of their pistols. Hav- 
ing overtaken my horse, and remounted, I retraced my steps, 
and rode into Navan, for assistance. I went to the house of 
the chief magistrate, who caused me briefly to give evidence, 
on oath, of my having been robbed ; and, proceeding with 
me to the barracks, obtained an escort of four of the seventh 
hussars, and a pistol for myself. We galloped through the 
town, and along the Dublin Road, about a mile, until we 
reached the bridge which crossed the Boyne; then, sending 
two of the hussars towards Dublin, with instructions to ar- 
rest them, should they have previously crossed the bridge, I 
turned to the left, with the remaining two, and proceeded in 



80 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

a direction to intercept the robbers. It had now become 
dark, and we searched the fields, without success; until, 
giving up the chase, in despair, about eleven o'clock, escort- 
ed by the two hussars, I reached home; finding my family 
in some degree of alarm, with regard to the result of this 
rencontre. 

I afterwards learned, that we passed within a few yards of 
the robbers, who were lying in a ditch, covered with thorns. 

The next morning, having visited the town, I was not a 
little annoyed by the intelligence I received from the magis- 
trate. He told me that the two hussars, whom I had sent 
forward along the Dublin Road, had stopped at a public 
house, to drink, that, while regaling themselves within, 
some one had adroitly despoiled their holsters of their pis- 
tols; and moreover, that the soldiers, on their part, had taken, 
from a car, standing at the door, a piece of linen. This was 
not all. These fellows continued, for many days, to perse- 
cute me, for the price of their arms ; saying, that they must 
either pay the price of them, or be flogged; to which, I at 
length, replied, that they well deserved punishment, for their 
unsoldierlike behaviour ; from which time, their importunity 
ceased. 

Although, however, the brigands escaped my pursuit in the 
field, all three were, eventually, taken, and brought to jus- 
tice. Having described their persons to my brother, then 
residing in Dublin, only a few days elapsed, before I received 
a letter from him, stating that two of their number were sup- 
posed to be in custody. I accordingly went up to the city, 
and, having gone to the police-office, situated in a " court," 
near the Royal Exchange, I requested the magistrate to 
bring into the apartment all the male prisoners then confined, 
in order that I might give the fellows fair play, and not assent 
to the identity of men brought before me, as the very per- 
sons I had described. At least a dozen were accordingly 
ushered in ; and I had little difficulty in identifying two of 
them, as the robbers. "This man," said I, pointing to a 
stout-buiit fellow, with reddish-coloured hair, and blue eyes, 
is the man against whom I ran, after I had dismounted 
from my horse; and this, I think, is the boy, who stood on 
his right; but there is one wanting, very like this boy (they 
were both handsome fellows, real Milesians, with black hair 
and eyes, like Spaniards) who stopped my horse" — " Yes :" 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 81 

said the elder prisoner, whose name was Dunn ; " we robbed 
this gentleman, and the other man is this boy's brother." I 
then told the magistrate, that I would swear positively to 
Dunn; but that I was not quite certain as to his companion; 
being reluctant that a boy, of not more than nineteen, should 
be hung. 

What was done with the boy, I never learned. It is pro- 
bable, he was sent on board the navy. Dunn, having been 
transmitted to the jail of Trim, to stand his trial, escaped 
from prison; and, having committed another felony, in the 
adjoining county of Louth, was tried, at Dundalk, and con- 
victed ; but his case, having, on a nice point of law, been 
submitted to the Twelve Judges, he got clear for that offence, 
and was again sent to the jail of Meath. He was a most 
hardy and dangerous ruffian ; having, some time before I 
had the honour of his acquaintance, joined in an assault 
upon the Dublin Horse Police, and, after a most desperate 
and sanguinary encounter, disarmed them; and, subsequently, 
with his confederates, he entered the barrack of the seventh 
hussars, at Drogheda, and stole the three pistols, and also 
three sabres, cut short by them, and concealed beneath their 
coats, with which they were armed, on the day of the Navan 
fair. 

On the second Monday in September, 1814, I was pre- 
paring to visit another fair, held that day, in Navan, when I 
received intelligence of the capture of three notorious high- 
way robbers — Shaw, Spicer, and another — after a most san- 
guinary contest with a small party of the police ; one of 
whom was killed. Proceeding, on foot, I beheld, on the 
high road, a party, seemingly in great confusion ; and, 
coming up with them, I found that they consisted of four of 
the police, having in their custody three men, all wounded 
in the head, with cloths tied around them, to stop the blood. 
The fellows had come to a stand, and backed up against the 
wall of Dollardstown Demesne, challenging their escort to 
fight or wrestle with them, when I presented one of my pis- 
tols at them, and threatened to fire, if they did not proceed. 
This menace was successful: they now went forward, only 
occasionally stopping, and holding down their heads, for the 
purpose of permitting the accumulated blood to fall, from 
their wounds, upon the road. 

We had not proceeded a mile, when I espied, approaching, 
8 



82 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

a number of persons, one of whom seemed to be in custody, 
and, when they came nearer, I identified the prisoner as the 
elder Finnegan, by whom I had been stopped, near that very 
place, at the preceding fair. He had been pursued by a 
farmer, at whom he presented a pistol, and snapped, when 
the former, levelling his musket, charged with slugs, shot 
him through one of his wrists, and he fell, and surrendered. 
Having put the four ruffians into a cart, we carried them to 
the jail of Navan; whence, in due course of time, they were 
conducted to the prison at Trim, and, together with Dunn, 
having been tried and convicted, suffered death. 

Such a state of society was not to be patiently endured. 
I was fortunate in having a most estimable neighbour, Gus- 
tavus Lambert, Esq., of Beau Pare ; a gentleman of easy for- 
tune, and, as a magistrate, an example of active usefulness, 
combined with lenity and dignified independence. It is 
happy for the people of Great Britain and Ireland, that this 
office is not, as in the United States, obtained by the solici- 
tation of starving politicians, but presented, spontaneously, 
with few exceptions, to gentlemen of high character and pro- 
perty ; by whom, it is exercised, not for the sake of gain, 
for they seldom accept a fee, but for the sole benefit of the 
community at large. Mr. Lambert and myself held frequent 
consultations, with regard to the most effective mode of 
purging the neighbourhood from the daily and nightly pest, 
with which it was then infected ; and, at length, determined 
each to organize a patrole, for the purpose of occasionally 
ranging the vicinity, by night, and arresting every person 
whom we encountered, of suspicious appearance. Mr. 
Lambert selected the south side of the Boyne ; and to me, 
was assigned the north. He was to send out a small party 
of the police, and I was to patrole with an equal number of 
my tenants. A burglary, attended with great barbarity, hav- 
ing been committed in the adjoining parish, we were, for 
some time afterwards, on the alert; and one night, I encount- 
ered two fellows, carrying bundles, who said they were on 
their way to Drogheda, to take shipping for Liverpool. 
From questions put to them, however, I suspected the truth 
of their statement, and, having conducted them to my house, 
had their baggage examined; which we found to contain 
wearing apparel of every description, male and female; one 
article of which was marked with the name of the person 



INCIDENTS RECALLED. 83 

whose house had been plundered, about a week before. 
Giving each fellow his bundle to carry, I marched them off 
to the jail, at Navan. Day was just breaking, as we reached 
the bridge near the town, which crosses the Boyne; when 
one of the prisoners, untying his bundle, flung it over our 
heads into the river, and both endeavoured to escape. Quick 
as lightning, however, we presented our arms at them ; and, 
one of my party, having thrown off his coat, plunged into 
the river, and, with a dive, caught hold of a pair of leather 
small-clothes, and brought them safely to shore. This was 
the most important garment of the whole, being marked with 
the owner's name. After several other ineffectual attempts 
to gain their liberty, we carried them to the prison, and soon 
were informed that they were notorious mail-robbers, for 
whose apprehension a reward had been offered, by the post- 
master-general. One of them turned king's evidence, which 
caused the arrest and conviction of a number of other ma- 
rauders. The other was convicted and executed ; and, while 
I remained in the country, we were never afterwards trou- 
bled with robberies, either night or day. Our district got a 
bad name, amongst those who subsisted on the industry of 
their neighbours : they indignantly abandoned our society, 
and sought employment in some other neighbourhood, where 
the magistrates were not so much on the alert. 

For my services, thus rendered to the community, I was 
tendered a commission of the peace, by the lord-lieutenant ; 
but I refused the honour ; as I had then determined to dis- 
pose of my property, and take up my future abode in the 
United States. 

In a previous part of this memoir, I have introduced the 
name of Mr. Arthur O'Connor, as a conspicuous character, 
amongst those arrayed against the government. He had an 
elder brother, Mr. Roger O'Connor, who, some time after 
the conclusion of the rebellion, and his release from prison, 
settled in the county of Meath, and became conspicuous in 
a very different sphere of action. During my attendance at 
the assizes at Trim, a suit was tried, against the townland in 
which he resided, arising out of the following circumstance. 
He had become the tenant of Dangan Castle, and the appur- 
tenant demesne, the estate of the Marquis Wellesley, at the 
annual rent of two thousand pounds, payable half yearly ; 
and, when notified, by the agent, who resided a few miles 



84 INCIDENTS RECALLED. 

distant, at Trim, to call upon him, and pay his rent, he 
claimed the strict privilege of a tenant, and replied, that the 
agent must collect the rent upon the land. The latter ac- 
cordingly rode out to the castle; and, having been shown 
into a parlour, Mr. O'Connor shortly afterwards appeared. 
The agent having stated the object of his visit, Mr. O'Con- 
nor produced a huge roll of notes, of the Bank of Ireland, 
one thousand in number, all quite new, and each of the value 
of one pound. Wishing to mark the notes, the agent asked 
for a pen and ink. " There are none in the house" was 
the reply. He gave a receipt, and, having taken his depar- 
ture, was on his way to the stable, where he had left his 
horse, when, on his passing through a dense shrubbery, 
which intervened, he was suddenly beset by two men, with 
black crape drawn over their faces, the notes were all taken 
from him, his hands bound, he was put into a sack, and left 
on the ground. His cries having attracted the notice of some 
of the domestics, he was released ; and, on returning to the 
parlour, Mr. O'Connor shortly afterwards appeared, and in a 
few minutes, his two sons ; all, of course, affecting astonish- 
ment, at the singular event. 

The rent having been lost, by a robbery in the day time, 
in conformity with the law, an action was brought against 
the " townland," for the recovery of the amount: the fore- 
going is the testimony of the agent; and a verdict was ren- 
dered in favour of the landlord. 

There prevailed only one opinion, respecting the perpe- 
trators of that outrage; and, a charge, subsequently brought 
against Mr. O'Connor, of having robbed the Cork Mail 
Coach, coupled with the destruction, some time before, of 
the castle, by fire, confirmed the public in their suspicions. 
Having been brought to trial, he was acquitted, chiefly by 
reason of the testimony, given by Sir Francis Burdett, and 
other distinguished individuals, brought over from England, 
of his good moral character, antecedently to his having be- 
come the associate of some of the worst persons in the com- 
munity. 

Here, terminates, for the present, the Incidents Recalled, 
of a life, passed in a period as eventful as any that the his- 
tory of the world records. 

THE END. 

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